Joining Friends' Worlds

Regardless of internet connection, cellular data, privacy settings, etc. my friends and I are unable to join each other's worlds. It times out and says "Unable to Connect to World" every single time even when we invite each other. I think since it's been happening to tons of people on the internet it must be a bug and it would be great if it was fixed. We did pay for this app so it would be nice to be able to use all the features.