There's no worse feeling than pulling off a wild 1v3 clutch to win a match with a random teammate, only to realize you have no clue how to add them to play again later. Or maybe your best friend just downloaded Apex for the first time, and you're ready to grind ranked together but can't find each other in the menus. If you're new to the game, or just haven't messed with the social settings much, you might be asking how do you add friends on Apex Legends. It feels like it should be simple, but crossplay quirks and menu differences across platforms can make it way more confusing than it needs to be. This guide walks you through every step for every device, fixes the most common errors, and even gives you tips for keeping your friends list organized so you spend less time navigating menus and more time dropping into matches.
How Do You Add Friends on Apex Legends for All Platforms
The good news is that the core process for adding friends is almost identical no matter if you play on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo Switch, as long as you have crossplay enabled. Before you start typing in a friend's ID, there are a few key details you need to have on hand to avoid mistakes:
- Your friend's exact EA ID, including any uppercase letters, numbers, or special characters (capitalization matters for EA accounts)
- Crossplay enabled in your Apex Legends settings (it's turned on by default, but double check if you can't find your friend)
- Both of you have updated Apex to the latest patch, as outdated versions can break crossplay friend search
- You don't have each other blocked on your EA account or platform account
Capitalization of EA IDs is extremely important – if you type "JakeTheSniper" instead of "jakethesniper", you won't pull up the right account, even if the spelling is otherwise correct. Once you have all those details sorted, the process is straightforward: open the social menu from the main lobby (it's the icon that looks like two people in the top right corner), select the "add friend" tab, type in their full EA ID, and send the request. If you're adding someone you already have added on your platform's native friends list (like PSN or Xbox friends), they'll automatically show up in your Apex friends list without you needing to send a separate EA friend request. That means if you mostly play with people on the same console as you, you might never even need to mess with EA IDs at all.
Fixing Common Friend Request Errors in Apex Legends
Even if you follow all the steps correctly, you might run into errors that stop you from adding friends, especially if you're playing with people across different platforms. The most common error people run into is "friend request failed to send", and there are a few easy fixes for that. First, check if you've hit the EA account friend limit of 1000 people. Most casual players won't ever hit that cap, but if you've been playing for years and add every random you have a good game with, you might need to clear out a few inactive accounts before you can add new friends. If you haven't hit the limit, try restarting your game and your router first – sometimes a simple connection reset is all you need to get requests to send properly.
If your friend request is sent but they never get it, ask them to check their hidden friend requests folder in the Apex social tab. A lot of people miss that requests from crossplay users go to a separate "pending requests from other platforms" folder instead of the main inbox. If you're getting a "user not found" error even after double checking the ID spelling, ask your friend if they recently changed their EA ID. It can take up to 24 hours for new IDs to sync across all Apex servers, so you might need to wait a day before you can search for their new name. If you're on a child or teen account, you might also have crossplay friend requests restricted by parental controls, so you'll need to adjust those settings on your platform account first to enable crossplay friend adds.
Tips for Organizing Your Apex Friends List
Once you start adding a lot of friends, your list can get cluttered fast, making it hard to find the people you actually queue with regularly. You can favorite up to 25 friends on your Apex social list so they show up at the top of your list, even if you have hundreds of added players. That's super helpful if you queue with the same 3 or 4 people every week, so you don't have to scroll through pages of randoms you added once six months ago. To favorite a friend, just click their name in the social tab and select the "favorite" option, and they'll stay pinned to the top of your list until you unfavorite them.
You can also sort your friends list by online status, platform, or recent activity to find people faster. If you want to grind solo ranked without getting spammed with invites, you can set your status to "do not disturb" from the social menu, and your friends won't be able to send you queue invites until you change your status back to online. You can also remove friends directly from the social tab by clicking their name and selecting "remove friend", and this won't block them, so you can add them back later if you want to play together again. If you're trying to join a friend's game that's already in progress, you can click their name and select "request to join", and if they have open slots in their squad, the leader can accept you mid-match if they're still in the lobby or between rounds.
How to Add Random Teammates You Want to Play With Again
We've all been there: you queue up with a random duo who calls out every enemy, drops you the gold shield you need, and carries you to your first master rank win. You don't want to lose that teammate, so adding them fast is key. You can add recent teammates directly from the post-match screen without having to type their ID, which saves you a ton of time. Just click their name on the scoreboard, select "add friend", and the request will send immediately, no extra steps needed. If you already left the post-match screen by accident, you can still find them in your "recent players" tab in the social menu, which shows the last 20 players you played with or against, sorted by how recently you were in a match with them.
It's good practice to send a quick message after adding a random if you want to play again, like "great game earlier, want to queue ranked later?" so they don't ignore your request thinking it's a spam bot. A lot of players automatically decline random friend requests if there's no message attached, so that one line can drastically increase the chance they accept your request. If you play in community tournaments or content creator lobbies, you can also add other players via their EA ID if you don't catch them in the recent players list, just make sure you get the exact spelling and capitalization from them directly to avoid searching for the wrong account.
At the end of the day, figuring out how do you add friends on Apex Legends only takes a few seconds once you know where to look, and fixing the rare error is usually just a matter of double checking spelling or restarting your game. Apex is way more fun when you're playing with people you click with, whether they're IRL friends or randoms you met in a Bronze lobby who turned into your regular ranked squad. Don't stress if you run into issues sending requests at first – even veteran players run into the occasional user not found error when they're typing fast after a chaotic win. Next time you have a great game with someone, don't hesitate to send that request, you might just find your new go-to third for ranked splits.