Why can't me and my friend play it takes two through your EA app

We have tried every which way to create a game and play together and nothing works, we even both paid for the game even though there is supposed to be a free friends option, the EA app is the biggest piece of * app ive ever had the misfortune of downloading, Why even pair with steam when its completely irrelevant. You buy the game from steam but play it through the EA app? It's complete garbage, can someone from EA please try and figure this out because spending over 4 hours trying to figure out how to just invite a friend to start playing a game is absurd.