Friends
Friends are an important aspect of gameplay. They are other people who also play the game, and they can be presented with a gift or a treasure chest dropped in their towns (each contains one 
) once every 24 hours.
Friends Menu
Friends are accessed by tapping on the Profile icon next to the Level Experience Bar, then pressing the "Friends" button at the bottom center of the screen. The Friends screen is a transparent interface that contains the "Friends", "Invite", and "Inbox" menu tabs, along with a refresh button, on the left side of the pop-up. While in the Friends menu, your 
, 
, current VIP level, and current will be displayed along the top of the screen. The current Friends menu was added during the design overhaul of Update 3.5.
Friends
The default view when opening the Friends screen is the top menu tab on the left, Friends. When viewing the list of Friends, the first two will always be Princess Celestia and Princess Cadance. The rest of the list is ordered from highest to lowest level, with the VIP players listed first. Players can gift other players by clicking "Gift All" at the top of the list, or individually clicking on the green heart button to the right of each in-game name. Next to the heart button is the blue house button, which allows players to visit their friends' towns. Every 24 hours, a treasure chest containing one can be gifted to that player while visiting.
- Please note: Friends will be listed by their in-game name, not their code number. If you prefer to send treasure chests with others in an even exchange, be sure to provide your in-game name along with your code. There is no way to confirm who has sent you a treasure chest, however.
For those players under the age of 13, the game automatically provides eight friends (two for update 2.4 onwards): Princess Celestia (level 50), Princess Cadance (level 40), Spike (level 30), Rainbow Dash (level 2), Pinkie Pie (level 20), Applejack (level 50), Fluttershy (level 30), and Rarity (level 30). They all have towns that can be visited, but the state of their towns does not match their reported level. Princess Cadance, Spike and Rainbow Dash's town layouts are the same.
Invite
The Invite screen, accessed using the center tab on the left in the Friends menu, contains three main features: the "Add New Friend" code entry interface for adding new friends, the "My Code" interface for copying your Friend Code into clipboard memory, and the "Referred Friends" list, which tracks the progress of players who entered your code in their referral section after they played the game introduction.
Friend Codes
Early versions of the game, prior to Update 2.3, had a feature which allowed players to add others via username on several social networking websites. This feature was removed after the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) was passed. Update 2.4 reintroduced the Friends function fully by implementing Friend Codes, unique multi-character hexadecimal codes assigned to each player upon playing the game for the first time. Friend Codes are comprised of hexadecimal (0-9/A-F) codes from four to seven characters in length, and are used to add Friends in-game.
Inbox
The Inbox is where players receive messages about friends' activity, some which generate hearts, and some which do not. The Inbox is accessed using the bottom tab on the left in the Friends menu (see above picture). Messages that generate hearts include notifications of new gift received, or announcements of friends who chose to dance with you in the Equestria Girls mini-game. Messages that do not generate hearts include updates when your Crystal Mine minigame high score has been beaten, and invitation requests to add a new Friend.
When messages are received, a number will display next to the Profile Menu icon in-game as an alert. In addition, the total number of messages displays on the envelope image on the Inbox tab.
