Hello @Hi-Angel, if I'm reading this correctly, you're asking for the left click action of the steam tray icon to toggle the main steam window frame, is that correct?
I'm not sure libappindicator is capable of this behavior.
@kisak-valve yes.
"Unity shows popup menu on left click; Plasma triggers activation, which is why apps that use standard libappindicator do nothing on left click in Plasma."
https://aur.archlinux.org/pkgbase/libappindicator-activate/?comments=all
libappindicator doesn't support "primary activate" action which is triggered on left click in KDE. But it supports "secondary activate" action, I guess it's triggered on middle click.
Some distributions like Arch Linux provide a patched version of libappindicator which binds "secondary activate" action to both secondary and primary activation.
So I think it will be a good idea to at least implement this feature using app_indicator_set_secondary_activate_target. So at least middle click will show/hide steam window. And for some distributions it will work even better. I don't think there is possibility to implement it better than this way.
Other applications which are using libappindicator have the possibility to have different actions on left and right click. So it should be no problem to implement it in Steam as well?
For example Gajim uses libappindicator and toggles the main window with a left click. On right click a menu is shown. I would expect the same behavior in Steam as well.
If someone need workaround on GNOME 3.36:
https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/2890/tray-icons-reloaded/
Still experiencing this in January 2026 on CachyOS with KDE Plasma 6.5 on Wayland. Left-click on the Steam tray icon shows the context menu instead of toggling the window. Middle-click also does nothing. Would be great to see this implemented.
Sigh, as a guy who is making the move to Linux from Win10, I suddenly really miss this...
Any work arounds for nobara?
Would be nice to have this feature.
If the issue is libappindicator, couldn't it be changed to something else? I do have plenty of applications that behave the same as under Windows, ie. double-clicking the systray icon opens up the app instead of opening and closing a context menu, so it's clearly not impossible to do.
It's just rather jarring for Steam under Linux to just open and close a context menu uselessly when I am used to double-clicking it under Windows to open the main window. It just feels....inconsistent and annoys me.
If the issue is libappindicator, couldn't it be changed to something else?
It was noted in comment above that libappindicator seems to allow some way to achieve toggling on left-click.
It was never replied to, and in absence of Steam source code I'd for now presume it is possible, just nobody from Valve looked at it.
and in absence of Steam source code
It's a shame, otherwise I would've already submitted a pull-request myself. Proprietary software just makes everything annoying since one just has to hope they eventually get around to fixing things, if ever.
Just moved to Linux, I'd also love to see this feature.
Not only this, but there is also currently no way to customise the tray menu on linux, like how you can on Windows.
As an example, the Discord app toggles its main window display on tray icon left-click, and the context menu on right-click, so it is certainly possible.
CachyOS/KDE-plasma.
Apps with ability to close to tray — e.g. viber, kmail, vlc, pidgin, kmix, etc — are commonly shows menu only on right-mouse click, and (un)hide (from)to system tray on left-click.
Would be great if steam would (un)hide to tray on left-mouse click either. ATM steam just shows menu for any of clicks.