Cannot join friends in NFS rivals

So I was trying to play NFS Rivals with a friend of mine but was unable to get it to work. I have the game on the EA app (Had it on origin from the start). My friend got it recently on steam. He had created an EA account and added me as a friend so no issues there. He even shows up on the friend list in game. However I am unable to invite or join to the same game as him. When he accepts my invite his name comes up on the 'current players in session' section for about 10 seconds and goes away. This all happens while he's still on the loading screen. He also cannot see any other players in his game sessions despite being on a public game. Any help regarding this will be appreciated, TIA.