Friends and following

Asterune is more fun with other people. There are two ways to connect with others on the platform — friends and following — and a full set of privacy controls so you decide who can reach you. This page explains how both work.

Friends and following: what's the difference?#

• Friends are a mutual connection. One person sends a friend request and the other accepts. Friends can see each other's online status, message each other, and — depending on a game — play together more easily.
• Following is a one-way connection. You can follow another user or creator to keep up with them without needing them to follow you back. Following is great for keeping an eye on your favourite creators and their new games.

You can be friends with someone, follow them, both, or neither.

Adding a friend#

1. Go to the user's profile, or open the ⋯ menu next to their name in a chat or game
2. Select Add friend
3. The other person receives a friend request and your friendship begins once they accept

You'll find incoming and outgoing requests in your Friends list. You can cancel a request you've sent, or accept and decline requests you've received, from there.

Following someone#

To follow a user or creator, open their profile and select Follow. You don't need their approval to follow them (unless they've restricted who can follow them — see below). Select Following again to unfollow at any time. Following someone doesn't let them message you or see anything they couldn't already see.

Managing your connections#

Your Friends list shows your current friends, pending requests, and who's online. From here you can:

• Message a friend directly
• Remove a friend — this ends the mutual connection. The other person is not notified
• View the profiles of people you follow or who follow you

Removing a friend or unfollowing someone is quiet and reversible — there's no notification, and you can reconnect later.

Controlling who can reach you#

You decide how others can find and reach you from Settings → Privacy. The controls most relevant to your social experience include:

• User discovery — whether other users can find you through mutual friends and discovery
• Chat requests — whether people outside your friends list can request a conversation with you
• Hide inventory — whether others can view the items on your profile

These sit alongside other options, and we add more privacy controls over time. For the full, up-to-date list and what each one does, see Privacy settings.

If someone is bothering you, you can report them and, where available, block them to prevent further contact.

Younger users and parental controls#

Accounts belonging to younger users have stricter social defaults — for example, direct messages limited to friends only. Parents and guardians can adjust who their child can connect with and message from Settings → Parental Controls. See our Parental controls guide for details.

Staying safe with new connections#

Be thoughtful about who you add and what you share. Never share personal information — your real name, address, school, or phone number — with people you've met on Asterune, and be cautious of anyone who asks for it. If a connection makes you uncomfortable, you can remove, block, and report them. For more on spotting bad actors, see Scams and phishing.

Getting help#

If you're having trouble with friend requests, following, or your privacy settings, contact us at Solarius support.