You can now add new friends to the game and gift them. You can either generate a friend code and send it to someone or you can accept a friend code from someone else.
To generate and send a friend code, open the social menu and tap “Generate your Friend Code”. An alphanumeric will appear in bold text, that is your friend code, and this can now be sent to ALL your new friends.
To add a friend using their friend code tap on the social menu and then “Enter friend code” in the “Add new friend” field. Then tap “Add” and there you go, a new friend added. You can now go ahead and gift them and get social points to access the social species.
Please remember that you can only have a maximum of 50 friends.