Minecraft claims my friends aren't really my friends

Hi and thanks for reaching Microsoft Xbox gamer's community. My name is Josef.
I'm an Independent Advisor and a Microsoft Xbox user like you.

Hope you're doing great today despite this Júlio_626

Additional information is needed, please answer the following questions to assist you properly:

Is this happening on PC, Xbox or mobile?
If it's on PC, are you using windows 10 or 11? And, is this happening with the Bedrock or Java edition?
If it's on Xbox, what console do you have?
If it's on mobile, are you using Android or iOS?

What happens exactly when you select a friend? It appears connected? Or no matter if you already have this friend added, they don't appear in your friends list as connected?

And, what did you tried so far to fix this problem?
In that way I can advise you different things or how to proceed

Hi and thanks for reaching Microsoft Xbox gamer's community. My name is Josef.
I'm an Independent Advisor and a Microsoft Xbox user like you.

Hope you're doing great today Dadzawa

Which minecraft edition are you using? Java or Bedrock?

May I know if this is happening only with this specific friend?
Could you or he/she try entering each one to a different realm from another friend to see how it goes?

Also, please tell me which troubleshooting steps you have done so far

I'll be waiting for your reply

Why not get a group of friends to play? It's really the only way to play as I've encountered this same problem. Thing is I just leave and try to find a new group to play with if my friends aren't online. These past few days, most of my friends are playing,
so it's all good on my end.

It really depends on my mood but Minecraft is pretty relaxing. I have a blast with friends.

Then they aren't really your friends... are they?