clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

How to invite cross-play friends in Apex Legends

Also, how to turn cross-play off and only play on your platform of choice

Caustic, Lifeline, and Mirage all looking at the camera in Apex Legends Image: Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts
Ryan Gilliam (he/him) has worked at Polygon for nearly seven years. He primarily spends his time writing guides for massively popular games like Diablo 4 & Destiny 2.

Apex Legends is a squad-based battle royale game, and there are rarely game modes that allow you to drop in alone. Normally, you’ll only be able to select between a Trios or Duos drop playlist.

While you can always matchmake into games with players you don’t know, Apex is best with friends. Thankfully, Respawn Entertainment has implemented a cross-play system that will let you play with your pals no matter what platform they play on.

In this guide, we’ll teach you how to add your friends and party up with players across Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X platforms. We’ll also dive into how to disable cross-play and answer if Apex Legends offers cross-progression.

How to add your friends

Cross-play should automatically be turned on when you boot up Apex Legends.

To add friends from other platforms, go to your friends list. Click the “Find Friend” button and type in your friend’s EA Public ID. If you’re having trouble finding your friend this way, you may need them to update their EA privacy settings via EA’s website. Players can update their settings to allow friends to find them with an email address, PSN account name, Xbox Live gamertag, or Nintendo Nickname.

Once you’ve found your friend, you’ll see an indicator next to their name denoting the platform they play on. Shoot them a friend request and have them accept it. They should now appear on your friends list like normal, and you’ll be able to invite them to Apex games just like players who share your same platform.

How to turn off cross-play?

A screenshot of the Xbox gameplay menu for Apex Legends Image: Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts via Polygon

The ability to play with friends is great, but what if you’re on console and don’t want to go against mouse and keyboard players? Or, as a PC player, what if you don’t want to deal with the aim assist from console players? Well, you can disable cross-play in the menu, but only on specific platforms.

On console, dive into the settings menu and look under gameplay. You’ll find a cross-play toggle toward the bottom of the list. Just note that if you turn cross-play off, you may have longer queue times for games since you’re narrowing the number of players you can match with.

Unfortunately, PC players don’t seem to have the luxury of turning cross-play off. The option to toggle the feature is missing from Apex Legends on PC, and it’s currently unclear if PC players will ever be able to opt out of the system.

What about cross-progression?

Now you know how to play with friends on other platforms or isolate yourself to your console of choice. But what about logging into your PC Apex Legends account on a console or vice versa? Unfortunately, Apex Legends doesn’t currently offer cross-progression for any platforms. If you boot the game up on a platform that isn’t your usual one, you won’t have access to any of your Legends, cosmetics, or stats.

If you’re a PC player who wants to grind out some weekly challenges on console from the comfort of your couch, you’re currently out of luck. The Electronic Arts help page for cross-play suggests Respawn won’t be adding cross-progression anytime soon, as the developer believes it helps maintain the integrity of Apex’s ranked mode.

The next level of puzzles.

Take a break from your day by playing a puzzle or two! We’ve got SpellTower, Typeshift, crosswords, and more.

news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news
news