Universal Cannot add Game Center 'Friend' or play with 'Nearby Players'

[martens]

There is supposed to be a way to invite Friends (or Nearby Players) to play games that connect with Game Center, however I've been unable to get it to work. The invite goes out, but only has a link to this support page:

Accept a friend request for Game Center - Apple Support

To accept a friend request, you need a device running a recent version of iOS, iPadOS, or macOS.

support.apple.com

There's no option to Accept the invite in Messages that I can see.

And Nearby Players does not show anything. Devices are both on same WiFi with Bluetooth enabled.

As far as I can tell, I have permissions set correctly to allow either of these requests.

 

[martens]

Finally got it to work, not sure what changed. The support article fails to mention a key requirement: Game Center notifications need to be on, as that is the only way to get invited to play.

Not sure why Friend requests were not working, but finally got one that was correct.

And Nearby Players needs both players to be logged into Game Center, I think with same game.