No Man’s Sky allows you to scour a vast, seemingly endless galaxy with your friends from across any platform with cross-play. You can quickly locate them through the cross-play feature through two different methods. The most direct way is by finding them in the multiplayer area aboard the Space Anomaly. You have to board one and enter the general social hub to locate your friends wandering around. You should be able to see their names above their character’s head when approaching them, and you can also tell what platform they’re using by an icon next to their name. When standing in front of them, hold the indicated button to create a group together.
The second method to directly finding friends is by sharing your No Man’s Sky code with them or receiving theirs. You can find this code in the friend’s list menu, in the Network Options tab, at the bottom of the screen. If you choose to see your code, you will need to send it to your friends outside of the game, such as through a text or Discord message.
They can then add you to their friend’s list to send you an invite. You can input your friend’s code on the same screen to add them to your friend’s list and hover over their name on your list to send them a group invite. Syncing up to them might take a bit, but when the two of you connect, you can freely explore the No Man’s Sky galaxy together.