Steam's latest beta has rolled out an update for the overlay, which drastically improves the screenshot manager, achievement tab, browser, and more, but one feature, in particular, has come in handy with CS:GO players. You can pin notes to the screen so they stay up while you play, meaning you can use a dot to make a crosshair for snipers.
This was shown off by reddeaded1 on Reddit along with an explanation of how it works: "Pin a note to the new steam overlay, put an asterisk or something in it, and set the opacity to 50%."
Snipers in CS:GO don't have crosshairs. You have to aim through the scope or hip fire and hope for the best. The latter doesn't usually work, and if you try it, any spectators on your team will probably get mad. Trust me, I was in Silver once. So, this is a handy solution, even if it's a little unfair. Scoping is still better than no-scoping though.
Given that the new overlay is in the beta phase, things are subject to change based on player feedback. And being able to use the notes app to create a pseudo-crosshair is the kind of thing that's likely to be tweaked, though how is another question entirely. Visible notes are incredibly useful, and a far better alternative to opening up a desktop app and constantly tabbing in and out. It could be that they're locked out of certain games like CS:GO, or restricted to corners of the screen. We'll have to wait and see.
"Seems like an unintended consequence and a bit of an oversight," Cain1608 replied. "I'm sure this will be changed."
p3ek replied, "Why? Anyone can have a crosshair overlaying their games for snipers for ecer, lots of monitors have it built in, there are of course apps for it, its not an issue".
Others even highlighted that they've done this before with physical notes, sticking paper to their screen with a small dot to imitate a crosshair. This just makes it a lot easier.
If you want to opt into the beta and see the new overlay for yourself, all you have to do is go to your settings, open the 'Account' tab, and under 'Beta participation', click 'CHANGE'. There should be a new option available. Once selected, you'll be prompted to restart your client which will install the update, letting you try out all the new bells and whistles.
If you then want to add a crosshair to CS:GO, you can, but I'd stick with the scope. A giant grey box on the screen might even be a distraction.