You just pulled off your first perfect Jin combo, climbed three ranks in ranked play, and immediately want to show off your new skills to your friend who plays on a different platform. But when you open the Tekken 8 menu, you can’t figure out where to send a friend request? You’re not alone. Figuring out how to add friends on Tekken 8 crossplay is one of the most common questions new online players ask, especially since the system works a little differently than most fighting games on the market. We’ve spent dozens of hours testing crossplay connections across every supported platform, so we’ve put together a no-fluff guide to get you grouped up fast, no headaches required.
How to Add Friends on Tekken 8 Crossplay Across All Platforms
Tekken 8 uses Bandai Namco ID (BNID) as the core system to power crossplay, rather than relying on individual platform friend lists. That means you don’t have to worry about platform restrictions when adding friends, as long as both of you have linked your platform account to a free BNID. If you don’t have a BNID already, the game will prompt you to create one the first time you open the online menu, and it takes less than a minute to set up with a valid email address.
Before you start sending requests, double check that crossplay is enabled in your game settings. You can find this option under the Online tab in the settings menu, and it’s turned on by default for most players, but it’s easy to toggle off by accident when adjusting other settings. Once you confirm crossplay is active, follow these steps to send a crossplay friend request:
From the main menu, navigate to the Online tab and select the Social icon (it looks like a little person silhouette in the top right corner of the screen). Select the “Search for User” option, then choose “Search by BNID” from the dropdown menu. Type in your friend’s full BNID, including any numbers at the end of their username, and select send request. Once they accept the request, they’ll appear in your crossplay friend list permanently, even if you switch between platforms to play the game.
If you’re adding someone who plays on the same platform as you, you can also search for their platform ID (PSN, Xbox Gamertag, or Steam ID) instead of their BNID, but using the BNID search works for all platforms and avoids confusion if multiple people have similar usernames across different systems.
Common Crossplay Friend Request Errors (And How to Fix Them)
Even if you follow all the steps correctly, you might run into small errors when adding crossplay friends, and most of them have simple fixes. The most common error is the “user not found” message when you search for a BNID. 9 times out of 10, this happens because your friend gave you their platform ID instead of their BNID, so double check that they’re sending you the right username from their BN account settings.
If your friend request sends but they never receive it, the issue is almost always privacy settings. Ask your friend to log into their Bandai Namco account online and make sure their friend request privacy is set to “allow all” or “allow friends of friends” instead of “no requests”. Many people set this to private by default when they create their account without realizing it blocks crossplay requests.
Another common issue is friends showing up as offline even when they’re actively playing the game. This is usually just a sync error between your game and the BNID servers. You can fix it by hitting the refresh button in the top of the social menu, or restarting the game if the refresh doesn’t work. Always install the latest game patch before trying to play crossplay too, because Bandai Namco pushes regular updates to fix crossplay sync and connectivity issues.
If you’re playing on PC and can’t see any crossplay friends at all, check your firewall settings to make sure Tekken 8 is allowed to make public internet connections. Windows Firewall often blocks online features for new games by default, and adjusting this setting takes 10 seconds in your system security menu.
What You Can (And Can't) Do With Crossplay Friends in Tekken 8
Once you’ve added your crossplay friends, you’ll have access to almost all of Tekken 8’s online features together, but there are a few limitations to be aware of so you don’t waste time trying to access features that don’t work cross platform. First, here’s what works seamlessly across all supported platforms:
There are a few small limitations to keep in mind, though. You can’t share in-game customization items, fight money, or battle passes across platforms, even if you’re friends, since all purchases are tied to your individual platform account. You also can’t transfer your save data between platforms, so your rank and unlocks will stay tied to the system you earned them on.
If you use native platform party chat (like PS5 party or Xbox party), crossplay friends won’t be able to join those groups. But in-game voice chat works across all crossplay platforms so you don’t have to rely on external tools if you don’t want to, though most players prefer Discord for better audio quality and larger group support.
Pro Tips to Make Crossplay Friend Management Easier
Once you’ve added a few crossplay friends, these small tips will make managing your list and playing together way less of a hassle. First, customize your BNID to something short and easy to remember, instead of using the random auto-generated username the system gives you when you sign up. This way, you don’t have to fumble with long strings of numbers when you’re giving your ID to new people you meet in lobbies.
You can favorite your most frequent playing partners so they show up at the very top of your friend list, so you don’t have to scroll through dozens of names to find the people you play with most often. Just select their name in the social menu and hit the “favorite” toggle to enable this feature.
If you meet someone you get along with in a random lobby or ranked match, you can send them a friend request directly from the end-of-match screen, no need to ask for their BNID. Just select their name from the match results list and choose “send friend request”, and it will go straight to their BNID inbox, even if they play on a different platform.
If you get tired of random friend requests from people you don’t know after a public lobby, you can adjust your privacy settings to only allow friend requests from people you’ve played with in the last 24 hours, or turn off requests entirely. You can toggle crossplay on and off at any time in your settings too, if you ever want to only play against people on your own platform to reduce input lag or avoid playing against mouse and keyboard players on PC.
Fighting games are always more fun when you’re playing against people you know, even if you’re all on different hardware. Once you get the hang of how to add friends on Tekken 8 crossplay, you’ll be able to set up regular play sessions, practice new combos against people of all skill levels, and build a little community of your own around the game. Don’t stress if you run into small connectivity issues at first, most of them take 30 seconds or less to fix, and you’ll be back to landing perfect rage arts against your friends in no time.