Game Center inviting friends programmatically - iphone

Question

I'm facing difficulty inviting a friend to the match.
GKMatchRequest *request = [[[GKMatchRequest alloc] init] autorelease];
request.minPlayers = 2;
request.maxPlayers = 2;
request.playersToInvite = [NSArray arrayWithObjects: #"G:1102359306",nil ];
// GKMatchmakerViewController *mv = [[GKMatchmakerViewController alloc] initWithMatchRequest:request];
// [self presentModalViewController:mv animated:YES];
[[GKMatchmaker sharedMatchmaker] findMatchForRequest:request withCompletionHandler:^(GKMatch *match, NSError *error) {
if (error) {
NSLog([error description]);
}
else if (match != nil) {NSLog(#"good match");
//self.chatMatch = match;
//self.chatMatch.delegate = self;
//[self chatReady];
}
else {
NSLog(#"other error");
}
}];
The problem is I never receive the invitation notification on second device logged to the account - G:1102359306.
When I use GKMatchmakerViewController (uncomment above 2 lines) and comment GKMatchmaker block I have automatically checked the good friend - G:1102359306 and when I invites him the notification with accept/decline is shown, that's how I know it's correct.
Do you see anything wrong with the code above? I want to use my own UI to handle the multiplayer mode. The strange problem is I also don't see in console any logs good match/other error, and the [error description] is only printed when I call the above code twice - it says that the previous req was canceled.

Answer 1

You cannot programmatically invite a specific set of players to a match. The findMatchForRequest:withCompletionHandler: documentation says this:
The match request’s playersToInvite property is ignored; to invite a specific set of players to the match, you must display a matchmaker view controller.
There is no public API that does what you want.