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Friends

The Friends feature provides access to the current user's Steam friends and related social information.

It can be used to build friend lists, display online and in-game status, inspect relationships, find friends playing the same game, and send direct Steam game invites.

Main Capabilities

  • Retrieve the full Steam friends list
  • Query friends by index or Steam User ID
  • Read relationship and online state
  • Check what game a friend is playing
  • Read a friend's current Steam Lobby ID when available
  • Find friends currently playing this application
  • Send direct game invites using a connect string

Basic Workflow

For a typical friend list:

  1. Call Get Steam Friends List.
  2. Receive an array of FSteamFriend entries.
  3. Display the identity and online state you need in your UI.
  4. Query additional information such as the current game or lobby when required.

For focused lookups, individual friend getters can also be used directly.

For practical Blueprint workflows, see Examples.

Friend and Game Data

FSteamFriend contains a friend's Steam User ID, persona name, persona state, relationship, and online state.

Current game information is represented by FSteamFriendGameInfo.

Relationships use ESteamFriendRelationship.

Game Invites

Invite Steam Friend To Game sends a direct invite using a connect string supplied by your game.

This function does not create a multiplayer session and does not open the Steam Overlay. Your project provides a Connect String and implements the receiver's handling of that string. A true result means Steam accepted the send request, not that your friend connected.

If you are using the managed Multiplayer feature, prefer Invite Player To Steam Game or Open Steam Invite Dialog For Current Game, which automatically use the current managed Lobby ID. For a pre-game lobby, use the Lobbies or Overlay invite functions instead.

See Steam Invitations and Join Requests to choose the correct node and learn how the receiving game handles the invitation.

Important Notes

  • Friend and persona information is provided by Steam and may not always be immediately available.
  • Some information is available only for friends or other Steam users known to the local client.
  • Privacy and Steam client state can affect the information returned.
  • This feature does not implement parties, sessions, or networking by itself.