The problem with the current state of friends list in social tab is that it's not refreshing properly and frequently enough staying dramatically outdated. Swithching worlds can sometimes force the refresh but doesn't always work. Then the only option is to restart the game itself. And it is very annoying.
What i'm suggesting is small refresh button for a friends list which would forcefully refresh it. If you don't want it to overload your servers then give it a 3 minutes timeout before we can click it again.
If you are not aware we are waiting for the websocket system that is used with various in game notifications and I think the website to be implemented for the social menu. So no manual refresh but rather a system that actually updates correctly.
I think while it has been worked on and bugs have and are being fixed on the notifications side in game, we may not actually see the social menu get updated until after udon at this point. I'm also waiting for what is supposed to be an amazing update to network IK but I am not expecting that until next year at the rate things are going with unity 2018 and udon.
my social menu never updates, and even if i have them in a favorite group those update slowly. i just use the site if i see some one that i want to join i close the client and use the site to join, if there in a private i use it as an opportunity to clear the memory leak that has inevitably built up.