Ok so,in PB2 is nearly impossible to play at the same match with your friend anymore.Of course you can send messages to each other's inbox but this is really time consuming and with the chat being shut down there's no other easy way of joining a match with your friend.
Thus here's what i think:When you visit your profile you can see who of your friends are online.I believe that you should also be informed about which match they are in (the map id,match name,map title etc.)Then it should also give you the option to insta-join the match(for example there's a button which says join and when you press it,it takes you to the match your friend is currently in.)That's an easy way to find each other in-game and play.
Let me know,what you think about this!