How do I add a friend on Steam?

Despite ever-increasing competition, Steam remains the biggest games platform (God, I hate that word) for the PC. If you’re planning to play with pals on Football Manager, Stardew Valley or any number of other PC titles, you’ll likely do it on Steam. But discovering how to add a friend on Steam isn’t straightforward, especially from the PC app itself.

Here’s how it’s done.

How to add a friend on Steam using the PC/Mac app

There are mulitple ways to add a friend on Steam, which we will run through in order of preference:

1. You can send a Quick Invite Link via email, WhatsApp or your medium of choice and have them instantly added to your friends list when they click on the URL. To get your Quick Invite Link, open the Steam app, click Friends in the top menu, then Add A Friend. You should see the option to copy your Quick Invite Link there. Note that each link is only valid for one person, so you can’t invite a group of mates in a WhatsApp group with the single link. If you need to do that, I suggest you use the next option, which is…
2. Send pals your Friend Code. On that same screen, Steam generates a nine-digit Friend Code, which you can ping to your mates. Enter a friend’s code into the relevant slot, and they will be added to your list.
3. The third option is to go for the plain old Steam username. I put this last, because it’s quite easy to misspell a name that’s been sent to you and add a complete random. Although, if you do manage to muck up the spelling, the Steam search engine will normally find the right person for you. You can search for a friend’s username on the same Friends > Add A Friend screen.

If your friends are trying to add you, keep an eye out for pending invites. You’ll find these by clicking on your username (next to Community in the main Steam navigation bar) and selecting Pending Invites from the left-hand navigation menu.

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