ISteamFriends-EFriendRelationship

Steam ISteamFriends API EFriendRelationship enum demystified

I put this repo up for anyone, who like me, tries to figure out what the values of the EFriendRelationship enum actually mean.

After getting utterly confused with the names and comments, I spend an hour testing this out with a friend. We unfriended, requested, ignored, blocked etc each other until we pinned down what each enum value actually means.

**tl;dr: "Blocked" is "Ignored". "Ignored" is "Blocked". "IgnoredFriend" is complicated.**

Language clarification

I will use LOCAL USER and REMOTE USER here.

• LOCAL USER is the user of the Steam account your app is currently running on.
• REMOTE USER is the user identified by the steam id you pass to GetFriendRelationship().

enum value definitions

k_EFriendRelationshipNone (0)

• What it says. There is no relationship between the LOCAL USER and the REMOTE USER.

k_EFriendRelationshipBlocked (1) IGNORE THE NAME, NO ONE HAS BEEN BLOCKED!

• This state just means that the LOCAL USER has JUST NOW ignored a friend request from the REMOTE USER. This state is temporary and not stored anywhere.

k_EFriendRelationshipRequestRecipient (2)

• The REMOTE USER has requested to be friends with the LOCAL USER.

k_EFriendRelationshipFriend (3)

• What it says. The LOCAL USER and the REMOTE USER are friends on Steam.

k_EFriendRelationshipRequestInitiator (4)

• The LOCAL USER has requested to be friends with the REMOTE USER.

k_EFriendRelationshipIgnored (5) IGNORE THE NAME, THIS MEANS BLOCKED!

• The LOCAL USER has explicitly BLOCKED the REMOTE USER from comments/chat/etc. This state is permanent and stored.

k_EFriendRelationshipIgnoredFriend (6)

• This is a combination of k_EFriendRelationshipIgnored and k_EFriendRelationshipFriend. The LOCAL USER and the REMOTE USER are friends on Steam. AND the LOCAL USER has explicitly BLOCKED the REMOTE USER, but without unfriending them. (In the Steam friends menu this is called "Block All Communication".)

k_EFriendRelationshipSuggested_DEPRECATED (7)

• Deprecated -- Unused.

k_EFriendRelationshipMax (8)

• The total number of friend relationships used for looping and verification.

Important to know about rejecting ("ignoring") friend requests:

Please note that when a user ignores a friend request, the requesting user knows that immediately, because their state changes from "RequestInitiator" to "None" immediately! So this should actually not be called "ignore", it should be called "reject".

Remote relationship states

This table shows for each relationship state, what states are possible for the REMOTE USER when they call GetFriendRelationship() with the Steam id of the LOCAL USER.

LOCAL USER	REMOTE USER
k_EFriendRelationshipNone	k_EFriendRelationshipNone k_EFriendRelationshipBlocked k_EFriendRelationshipIgnored
k_EFriendRelationshipBlocked	k_EFriendRelationshipNone
k_EFriendRelationshipRequestRecipient	k_EFriendRelationshipRequestInitiator
k_EFriendRelationshipFriend	k_EFriendRelationshipFriend k_EFriendRelationshipIgnoredFriend
k_EFriendRelationshipRequestInitiator	k_EFriendRelationshipRequestRecipient
k_EFriendRelationshipIgnored	k_EFriendRelationshipNone k_EFriendRelationshipIgnored
k_EFriendRelationshipIgnoredFriend	k_EFriendRelationshipFriend k_EFriendRelationshipIgnoredFriend