can't connect to my friends

Hi,

I played on Xbox One for years and have now switched to PC. I created a new username in my account because I couldn't take my Xbox account with me. Now my problem: I start the EALauncher to start the game. I notice that my friends list is there, but the contacts are all offline, even though they should be online.
Even if I start the game and want to connect via Connect, I can't do it because the connection fails every time.
What am I doing wrong?