Nintendo Switch Online 2.0 app update adds easier way to copy your friend code

Nintendo has updated its Switch Online mobile apps for iOS and Android to version 2.0, which brings a tweaked design as well as some minor quality-of-life improvements. The app launched shortly after the Nintendo Switch in 2017. It’s designed to work in tandem with the console, offering features like online voice chat that aren’t available on the Switch itself.

For my money, the 2.0 update’s most interesting improvement is that it offers an easier way to find and share your friend code, the cumbersome 12-digit identifier that’s the primary way of adding friends on Nintendo’s online service. Instead of having to manually copy out the code from your Switch console itself before sharing it with a friend, the update lets you easily copy it from the app with a single tap. Your friend will still have to manually type out the 12 digits to add you on their console, but at least sharing the code is now easier.

The other updates available with the 2.0 update are more minor. Nintendo advertises that the app now shows which friends are online, and also lets you “change your online-status settings.” These are both such basic features that it’s amazing they weren’t already available in an app that launched almost five years ago, but it’s not a huge surprise given Nintendo’s traditional focus on single- and local-multiplayer games.