How to find your Wii friend code (and add other Wii friends)

Although I’m really enjoying just about everything about the Wii right now, I have to admit the process of adding other friends to the address book is far from intuitive at the moment. I’ve had a couple of people, including my roommate who actually owns the Wii, ask me how to get this number. Who knows if Nintendo will change this process with an update at some point, but for now, I think it’s worth drawing up a little guide.

First thing to note is that in order to send messages between two Wiis, you need to have the “Wii number” for both consoles, not just one of them. My guess is that this is to prevent people from spamming or otherwise abusing the message service.

[Image: message board]OK…so how do I get my Wii friend code?

From the Wii home menu (channel screen) you need to click on the little message icon in the bottom righthand corner. This takes you to the Wii message board, where you will find a daily pinup of what games you have played, plus messages that other people have left (or sent) you. This is where messages will show up when your friends send them to you.

On the bottom left of this new screen are a couple of options. The one you want is the “create message” button, pictured here. Once you click on this, it will take you to a screen with three options. The one on the right, which says “address book,” is the one you want to click.

[Image: create message]On the front of your address book is your Wii friend code. You must give this code to anyone you wish to add as your friend, since as I said above the process has to be reciprocal.

Adding Wii friends is pretty simple, although they’ve used the word “Register,” which I think is a little counter-intuitive. In the bottom right, just click the “Register” button, then click “Wii,” and follow the rest of the options for adding your friend.

Don’t worry about adding a Mii yet; you can only add Miis that are already available on your console, so you should wait until your friend sends over their Mii (via message) before you assign it to their console.

That’s it. Enjoy.