The Uber bar either very rarely updates or doesn't update without a restart, even with a restart it can show friends that I know are online, as offline, or vice versa, @thetrophysystem and I can both confirm this. Edit: It could literally take us 10 game restarts for the Uber bar to show one of us on it...
Yes, either the Uber Bar needs to refresh to check for friends or activity: -More Often -More Accurately -Through more ways
