Microsoft made a lot of mistakes when they launched the Xbox One in 2013, and they had to change a lot of things, especially regarding the Kinect camera and the rules concerning how your games could be used. Therefore, perhaps not many people reacted to minor things, such as the removal of the established friend system on Xbox Live.
Instead, it became possible to follow people without being friends and it was harder to tell if someone wanted to be your friend. Since then, some improvements have been made, but it’s still not as smooth as it once was for Xbox 360. And now Microsoft has decided to reverse things.
Via Xbox Wire, they report that the so-called friend requests are making a comeback:
“We’re thrilled to announce the return of friend requests! Now, you can easily send, accept, or delete friend requests, making it simpler to connect with others. Friends are now a two-way, invite-approved relationship, giving you more control and flexibility.”
For now, this only applies to the so-called Insider program, but after it has been tested, it usually only takes two to three months before the features are launched live. Hopefully, we will soon have a much easier time finding friends online to play with on Xbox.