The digital-distribution gaming company Valve has started a closed beta for a smartphone app that will allow access to their social-gaming and delivery Steam service on both Android and iOS. While the app will not allow people to play games, it will permit customers the ability to access their social profiles and purchase games from their mobile.

The good folks over at Eurogamer contacted Valve for comments on their new product.

“The Steam app comes from many direct requests from our customers,” commented Valve CEO Gabe Newell. “Seeing which of your friends are online and playing a game, sending quick messages, looking at screenshots for an upcoming game, or catching a sale – these are all features customers have requested.

“Mobile is changing way people interact, play games and consume media, and the Steam app is part of our commitment to meet customer demands and expand the service functionality of Steam to make it richer and more accessible for everyone.”

If you want to be part of the beta, you can simply download the app now and log into your account. Valve will be adding gamers as the service ramps up and demand increases.

The app will not only allow Steam customers to purchase games from their phone, but will give them access to their profiles, screenshots, movies, and Steam chat. Much like other gaming social networks that are tied to desktop or living room gaming—like Microsoft’s Xbox Companion service for mobile devices—are beginning to break out of the console/PC and allow players to stay in touch even when they’re on the go.

This is all another portion of the extension of the living room cloud enabling an intersection between what customers do in front of a monitor and away from home.

This overlap is becoming more prominent as services seek to connect people at work, at home, and on-the-go with social media and high interconnectivity. Communication is the mainstay of the modern life and many gaming services take advantage of the social aspect of the video game experience. Already Steam provides a chat service that is available while playing full-screen games on he PC (which ordinarily take a person away from socializing on the Internet because they rapt all attention on the computer.)

Between services like Xbox Live, the PlayStation Network, and Steam we’re beginning to see the effects of the interface between the living room and personal clouds adding to the social fabric of Internet-connectivity and all facts of our information society.