You just downloaded Deadlock, played a couple of quick matches against randoms, and are already hooked on its chaotic mix of MOBA ability combos and fast-paced FPS gunplay. The first thought that pops into your head? You need to drag your regular gaming group into this mess, so you’re asking how do i invite my friends to deadlock. If you’ve fumbled through the main menu for 10 minutes without finding the invite button, you’re not alone. The UI hides some key social features behind small icons, and crossplay quirks can make sending invites feel way more complicated than it should be. This guide breaks down every working invite method, fixes the most common issues, and helps you get your whole squad in a lobby in minutes.
How Do I Invite My Friends to Deadlock: In-Game Invite Methods for Every Platform
The fastest way to send invites is directly through the in-game social menu, which works across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. First, look for the small person-shaped icon in the top right corner of the main menu; that’s your social tab, and it’s easy to miss if you’re rushing to jump into a match. Click it, and you’ll see three sub-tabs: friends already playing Deadlock, your native platform friends list, and recent players you’ve matched with in public games.
If your friend is online on the same platform as you, just click their name and hit Send Invite. They’ll get a pop-up notification in-game or on their platform dashboard within 10 seconds, and they can accept to join your lobby immediately. If you’re playing crossplay, you’ll need to add them using their unique Deadlock ID first, since platform friends lists don’t sync across different systems by default. You can find your own Deadlock ID right below your profile name in the social tab, just copy it and send it to your friend so they can send a friend request, or enter theirs in the Add Friend search bar to send a request directly. If you’re still confused about how do i invite my friends to deadlock when using the Steam overlay, you can also right click the game in your Steam library, select "Friends", and hit invite next to any online friend's name to skip the in-game menu entirely.
Fixing Common Deadlock Invite Errors That Stop Your Group From Joining
Even if you follow all the steps correctly, you might run into glitches that stop invites from sending or showing up. Most of these issues have super simple fixes that take less than a minute to try, so you don’t have to give up and play with randoms. The most common error is invites not showing up at all for your friend, which almost always happens because one of you has crossplay disabled in your settings.
If invites keep failing, work through this quick checklist first to rule out basic issues:
- Double check that both you and your friend have crossplay enabled in your in-game Settings > Gameplay menu
- Make sure your Deadlock client is updated to the latest version to avoid compatibility bugs that block cross-platform invites
- If invites still won’t send, have the host set their lobby to public for 30 seconds so your friend can search for it by name and join directly
Another common issue is the "invite expired" error that pops up even when your friend just got the invite. That usually happens if one of you has a spotty internet connection, or if the social tab is glitching and not syncing properly. The easiest fix here is to restart your game and your platform client (Steam, PSN, or Xbox Network) to force a refresh of your friends list and connection to Deadlock’s servers. If you’ve tried every method and still can’t figure out how do i invite my friends to deadlock, the custom lobby public search trick almost always works, even when the social tab is completely broken.
Setting Up a Private Deadlock Lobby for Custom Games With Friends
If you don’t want to play against random players, or you want to run custom scrims, tweak game rules, or mess around with unranked matches with just your group, a private lobby is the way to go. Setting one up takes less than a minute, and you can invite all your friends directly once it’s live. First, from the main menu, select "Play" then "Custom Lobby" instead of quick play or ranked. You’ll get a prompt to name your lobby and set a password if you want to keep random people from joining uninvited.
Once the lobby is created, you can invite friends directly from the social tab the same way you would for a public match, or share the lobby name and password with them so they can search for it and join on their own. You can also adjust a ton of fun settings in the custom lobby menu: turn off friendly fire, increase or decrease ability cooldowns, limit which heroes are available, even set the match length to be shorter or longer than the standard 40-minute run time. One trick most new players don’t know? You can swap teams whenever you want in a private lobby by clicking your player card and selecting "Switch Team", so you don’t have to re-invite people if you want to rearrange your groups for a fair match.
Pro Tips to Make Playing Deadlock With Friends More Fun
Now that you know how to get your friends into a lobby, you can make your play sessions way more enjoyable with a few small tweaks that most new players don’t figure out for weeks. First, use a third-party voice chat app instead of the in-game voice chat. Deadlock’s in-game voice is still pretty buggy, and it cuts out often during chaotic team fights, so apps like Discord or even your platform’s native party chat work much better for calling plays and joking around between rounds.
Second, pick complementary hero roles when you’re queuing for ranked play. If all four of your friends pick damage heroes, you’ll have no healer or tank and get steamrolled by coordinated teams in minutes. It’s okay to switch up who plays which role every few matches so no one gets stuck playing support every time, even if someone complains about not getting to play their favorite damage hero. Third, don’t be afraid to mess around in custom lobbies before you jump into ranked. You can practice ability combos, test out new heroes, and even run silly game modes like all-damage or all-tank matches to get used to the game mechanics without risking your rank. For example, my group does a weekly "random hero only" custom match where no one gets to pick their character, and it’s easily the most fun we have all week, even when we’re all playing heroes we’ve never touched before.
At the end of the day, figuring out how do i invite my friends to deadlock only takes a couple of minutes once you know where to look for the social menu and how to work around common crossplay bugs. Whether you’re queuing for quick play to test the waters, running ranked matches to climb the leaderboards, or messing around in custom lobbies with your closest group, playing with friends makes every match way more fun, even when you lose horribly. Don’t forget to double check your crossplay settings if invites aren’t going through, and don’t be afraid to use the custom lobby search trick if all other invite methods fail. Now go get your squad together and drop into your first match.