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Lobby invites

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This article provides an overview of Lobby invites and how to use them in the Lobby and Matchmaking SDK.

NOTE: Only players (i.e. title_player_account PlayFab entities) can send or receive invites. Game servers (i.e. game_server PlayFab entities) cannot. For more information on the how game servers interact with lobbies, see Game Servers and Lobbies.

Invite types

There are two types of invites your game is likely to make use of.

  1. In-game invites
  2. Platform invites

Joining a lobby by in-game invites

  • A member of a lobby may invite another player to that lobby directly via the lobby service.
  • This invite shares the lobby's connection string with the invited player.
  • The invited player receives the invitation via PFLobbyInviteReceivedStateChange and can use the attached connection string to join the lobby.
  • These invites work cross-platform but only work in-game.

Joining a lobby by platform invites

  • Members of the lobby can directly share the lobby's connection string with other players over platform-specific invite mechanisms.
  • These invites don't work cross-platform but can be received without the recipient already running the game.
  • Once the invited player receives the connection string via the platform mechanism, they can use the attached connection string to join the lobby.

Example sending and receiving invites using the Lobby and Matchmaking SDK

Use PFMultiplayerStartListeningForLobbyInvites on the invite recipient to enable receiving in-game invites.

The invitation listener will change its status as Listening once it has been successfully set up.

HRESULT AllowInvitations(
    const PFEntityKey* entity)
{
    return PFMultiplayerStartListeningForLobbyInvites(g_pfmHandle, entity);
}

void HandleInvitationListenerStatusChange(
    const PFLobbyInvitationListenerStatusChangedStateChange& invitationListenerStateChange)
{
    PFLobbyInvitationListenerStatus status;
    HRESULT hr = PFMultiplayerGetLobbyInvitationListenerStatus(
        g_pfmHandle,
        &invitationListenerStateChange.listeningEntity,
        &status);
    assert(SUCCEEDED(hr));

    switch (status)
    {
        case PFLobbyInvitationListenerStatus::Listening:
        {
            Log("%s is listening for invitations", invitationListenerStateChange.listeningEntity.id);
            break;
        }
        case PFLobbyInvitationListenerStatus::NotAuthorized:
        {
            Log("Invitation listener not authorized!"); // this is likely an issue with the listener's entity token.
            break;
        }
        default:
    }
}

Use PFLobbySendInvite to send an invite to another PlayFab user via the lobby service.

The recipient will receive a PFLobbyInviteReceivedStateChange.

HRESULT SendInvite(PFLobbyHandle lobby, const PFEntityKey* sender, const PFEntityKey* receiver)
{
    return PFLobbySendInvite(lobby, sender, receiver, nullptr);
}

void HandleInvitationNotification(const PFLobbyInviteReceivedStateChange& invite)
{
    Log("%s invited to lobby by %s", invite.listeningEntity.id, invite.invitingEntity.id);
    // pass invite.connectionString to PFMultiplayerJoinLobby
}

See also