Help me understand Friends on Nintendo Switch

Currently, you can only friend people, see what they have played recently, and get online notifications and currently playing game notifications. Most games don't even let you invite friends, but some do. In Splatoon, you can voice chat with teammates using the Switch Online app.

As of early January 2018, the friend system is very bare bones. As I edit this at the end of 2018, nothing has changed in this regard.