Where to start
Friends live behind the Friends button in the navigation at the bottom of the screen. Open it and you get your list, any pending requests, and an Add Friend button that opens the four methods below.
Four ways to connect
They all end in the same place. Which one is easiest depends on whether the other player is sitting next to you or on the other side of the country.
One difference is worth knowing before you start. A friend key and a friend link make you friends on the spot, with nothing to accept. Search by name sends a request that has to be accepted before you can bid together.
Share your friend key
Every player has a six-character friend key. Read yours out at the club, or paste it into a message, and the other player can add you with it. This is the one to reach for when you are in the same room.
Keys are drawn from an alphabet that leaves out the characters people mishear: there is no I, no O, no zero and no one. If a key will not go through, it is worth reading it back before assuming the key is wrong.
- Capitals do not matter. The key is read the same either way.
- You can generate a new key at any time, which retires the old one.
- You can switch your key off entirely if you would rather not be added this way.
Enter someone’s friend key
If they gave you theirs, type the six characters into the friend key field. You are friends as soon as it goes through, and they get a notification saying so. There is nothing to accept.
Search by name
Search finds players by display name. It ignores capitals and matches partial names, so three characters is enough to start. It is the least reliable of the four, because two players can pick the same name and some players are not searchable at all.
Send a friend link
Cuebids can generate a link of the form cuebids.com/addFriend/ABC123. Send it by text or email and one tap adds you — same instant result as the key, because it is the same mechanism underneath. This is the one to use for a partner who is new to the app: it works before they know what a friend key is.
Accepting and declining
Only search by name produces a request. It sits in your friends list until you deal with it: accept it and you are mutual friends, block it and that player cannot reach you again.
There is no neutral decline. The choice is accept or block, so if you are not sure who someone is, it costs nothing to leave the request where it is.
Friend permissions
Once you are friends, the permissions icon next to the delete icon controls what that friend may do with your account. There are four levels, and they govern two separate things: whether the friend can spend your tickets, and whether they can pull you into an event without asking.
| Level | Can spend your tickets | Events |
|---|---|---|
| Allow all | Yes | Can join you without an invite |
| Practice + invite events | Yes | Must invite you, cannot join unasked |
| Invite events only | No | Can invite you |
| Disallow all | No | Cannot invite you |
Which level to pick
For a regular partner, Allow all is the setting that gets out of the way: they can start a session with you whenever they have a spare minute, which is the whole point of asynchronous bidding.
For someone you have met once at a tournament, Invite events only or Disallow all keeps your ticket allowance yours. The levels can be changed at any time and the change takes effect immediately.
Removing and blocking
- Remove friend does more than it sounds like: it blocks that player, and they move to your Blocked tab. Neither of you can send a request afterwards until you restore them.
- Block is the same thing, offered by name when you are replying to a request rather than removing an existing friend.
- A block can be undone: open the Blocked tab in your friends list, find the player, and choose restore.
- Following is a third, quieter thing. It is one-way, it exists so you can compare results with a player, and it never makes them available as a partner.
When your partner does not appear
The partner dropdown when creating a session lists mutual friends only. If somebody is missing from it, the friendship is in one of the states below rather than broken.
| What the list shows | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Chat and permissions icons | You are mutual friends | Nothing; they will be in the dropdown |
| Cancel request | You sent a request; they have not accepted | Remind them; it is waiting in their list |
| Accept and block | They sent a request; you have not accepted | Accept it |
| Unfollow | You follow them one way, for comparing results | Send a friend request; following is not a friendship |
| Restore | You blocked them | Open the Blocked tab and restore |
| Nothing at all | They may have blocked you, or the account is gone | Ask them to send you a request |
When something does not work
A friend key is rejected
Check that it is exactly six characters and that nothing was lost in copying. If it still fails, that player may have switched their key off — and because the friend link is built from the same key, a link will not get around it either. Ask them to turn it back on, or find each other by name instead.
Search cannot find them
Try their exact display name rather than the name you know them by; the two are often different. Search does not reach players who have turned off name search, and it does not reach deleted accounts. A friend key or a link works in every one of those cases, which is why they are the methods worth asking for.
Common questions
Why can I not select my partner when starting a session?
The dropdown lists mutual friends only. Almost always one of you has a request still waiting to be accepted.
What is a friend key?
A six-character code that identifies your account. Sharing it lets another player add you without searching for your name.
Can a friend spend my tickets?
Only if their level allows it: Allow all, or Practice + invite events. The other two levels keep your allowance yours.
Does the other player have to accept?
Only if you found them by searching for their name. A friend key and a friend link make you friends straight away, with nothing to accept on either side.
Can I undo a block?
Yes. Open the Blocked tab in your friends list, find the player, and choose restore.
My friend key is being rejected. Why?
Keys are six characters and contain no I, no O, no zero and no one, so a misread character is the usual cause. A key can also have been switched off or replaced, and you cannot add yourself with your own key.
Where to go next
Next guide
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