You just had a sick match with a random who hit three perfect Kraber shots, carried your squad to a Champion win, and they sent you a friend request right after the end screen. But if you’re new to the game, or never messed with the social menu before, you might be stuck wondering how do you accept a friend request on Apex Legends. I still remember panicking my first season when a top 100 ranked player sent me a request after we clutched a 2v3 endgame, and I spent 10 minutes clicking every menu button trying to find where to accept it before the game timed out and I lost the request entirely. Don’t make that same mistake. This guide breaks down every step for every platform, fixes for common glitches, and extra tips to manage your friends list so you never miss a chance to squad up with a great teammate again.
How Do You Accept a Friend Request on Apex Legends For All Platforms
The process is slightly different depending on what device you play on, but all paths lead to the same in-game social menu. You don’t have to exit the game or navigate to external platform menus if you don’t want to, though we’ll cover that trick later for glitch fixes. PC (Steam & EA App): First, boot up Apex Legends and get to the main lobby screen. Look for the small icon of two people in the top right corner, right next to your coin and crafting metal counts. Click that icon to open the social menu. You’ll see three tabs at the top: Friends, Recent Players, and Friend Requests. Click the Friend Requests tab, and all pending incoming and outgoing requests will show up. Hover over the request you want to accept, click the checkmark icon, and that person is added to your friends list immediately.
PlayStation and Xbox: From the main lobby, press the Options button (PlayStation) or Menu button (Xbox) to open the side menu. Scroll down to the Social tab and select it. You’ll see a notification badge on the Friend Requests section if you have pending requests. Navigate to that section, select the request you want to accept, and confirm with X (PlayStation) or A (Xbox). You can also adjust your settings to show request pop-ups directly on your lobby screen, so you don’t have to dig through the menu every time you get a new request. Nintendo Switch: From the lobby, press the + button to open the menu, navigate to Social, then select Pending Friend Requests. Choose the request you want to approve, press A to accept, and you’re done. Switch players often report slower loading times for the social menu, so give it a few seconds to load if you don’t see requests pop up right away.
Common Glitches That Stop You From Seeing Friend Requests
If you know someone sent you a request but you don’t see it in the tab, you’re not alone. Apex’s social menu has had small, persistent glitches since crossplay launched, and most of them are easy to fix. I’ve run into this exact issue at least a dozen times when playing with crossplay friends, so I’ve tested every fix out there to get requests to show up fast. Here are the most reliable solutions:
- Restart your game client: 90% of missing request glitches are fixed by a quick reboot. Temporary cache issues often block new social notifications from loading, and restarting flushes that cache so new requests show up immediately.
- Check if you have friend requests turned off: Go to your game settings, navigate to the Privacy tab, and make sure the “Allow Friend Requests” toggle is switched on. If you set it to “Only From Crossplay Friends” or “Off” by accident, you won’t receive any new requests at all.
- Ask the other person to send the request again: Occasionally requests get lost in transit if one of you has a spotty internet connection when the request is sent. A re-send almost always fixes this, even if you didn’t have any obvious lag when the first request was sent.
- Check your platform’s native friends list first: If you’re playing on console, sometimes the request will pop up in your PlayStation, Xbox, or Switch friends list before it shows up in Apex’s in-game social menu. Accepting it there will still add them to your in-game friends list automatically.
Last month, my PC friend sent me three requests that never showed up on my Xbox until I restarted my console, so don’t assume the other person forgot to send it if you don’t see it right away. Give these fixes a try first before you write off the request entirely.
Tips for Managing Your Apex Legends Friends List
Once you know how to accept requests, you’ll probably end up with a long list of teammates you’ve met over random matches. Staying organized makes it way easier to find people to squad up with when you log on, instead of scrolling through dozens of names you don’t recognize. First, tag friends by playstyle – you can add a short note to each friend on your list, like “Sniper main” or “Great for ranked”. That way you don’t have to guess if someone is a good fit for the game mode you want to play, even if you haven’t played with them in a few weeks.
Second, don’t be afraid to remove people you haven’t played with in six months or more. Apex limits your friends list to 200 people, so clearing out inactive players makes room for new teammates you actually want to play with. I do a clear out every season, and it saves me so much time when I’m looking for people to queue with. Third, turn on do not disturb if you’re grinding ranked alone and don’t want invites popping up mid-match. You can toggle this in the social menu, and it will block all friend requests and squad invites until you turn it off again. That means you won’t get distracted by pop-ups right as you’re about to fight a full squad in the endgame.
What to Do After Accepting a Friend Request
Accepting a request is just the first step to playing together. A lot of people accept requests and then never reach out, which means you miss out on a potential great teammate. First, send them a quick message to say hi, and mention what match you met in if you played with them randomly. That helps them remember who you are, especially if they send a lot of requests after good matches. I always add a line about that clutch Kraber shot they hit, and it almost always leads to a quick queue together right after.
Next, invite them to a lobby to test out your synergy – even if you only play one quick trios match together, you’ll get a feel for if you play well as a team. Don’t pressure each other to play ranked right away; casual matches are a low-stakes way to see if your playstyles click, and you don’t have to worry about losing RP if you have a bad game. If you end up playing together regularly, you can even set up a custom lobby to practice specific skills, like aim drills or endgame zone rotations, without having to queue for public matches. Also, if you play with someone who’s really toxic or throws matches on purpose after you accept their request, don’t feel bad about removing them immediately. Your games should be fun, and you don’t owe anyone a spot on your friends list just because you had one good match together.
At the end of the day, figuring out how do you accept a friend request on Apex Legends is a small skill that makes the whole game way more fun. Playing with randoms can be hit or miss, but building a list of consistent, fun teammates turns every match into a good time, even if you don’t get the win. Don’t stress if you miss a request or run into a glitch now and then – the fixes are simple, and you’ll get the hang of navigating the social menu in no time. Next time you hit a Champion win with a random who carries your squad, you’ll know exactly where to go to accept their request and squad up again later.