Play Minecraft with friends, natively

Mojang first shipped the Friends List and peer-to-peer (P2P) multiplayer in Java Edition 26.2 Snapshot 7, with a full release planned for the next major update. It lets you open any single-player world to your friends over the internet without renting a server, paying for Realms, or being on the same Wi-Fi. Just like Bedrock players have had for years.

This guide walks through how to set it up and use it, and provides you with a list of pros and cons - indicating when you might want to use a Seedloaf server instead.

1. What you will need

A few things have to be true before any of this works:

• You and your friends are all on Minecraft: Java Edition, version 26.2 or newer (currently in snapshot, so back up your worlds before you touch it).
• Everyone is signed in with a Microsoft / Xbox account.
• Your Xbox privacy settings allow you to add friends and join multiplayer sessions. If you’re using a child account, the parent account has to flip those switches first.

If you’re not sure about the privacy side, head to your Xbox account settings on the web and check the Privacy & online safety section before troubleshooting in-game.

2. Adding a friend

The Friends List lives on the title screen and the pause menu - there’s a new button where the rest of the multiplayer options are.

1. Open the Friends List
2. Click Add Friend
3. Type your friend’s Minecraft Profile Name (this is the same name shown above their head in-game)
4. Send the request

Your friend will see a pending request on their end and can accept or decline.

3. Opening a world to your friends

This is the part that replaces the old Open to LAN button. From inside a single-player world:

1. Pause the game
2. Click Multiplayer Options (the renamed LAN screen)
3. Choose a visibility level:
   • Off — fully private, just you
   • Local — friends on the same network can join (this is the classic LAN behaviour)
   • Online — friends from your Friends List can join over the internet
4. Confirm — your world is now open

From here you can either invite specific friends directly, or wait for them to request to join. You’ll get a prompt either way and can accept or deny.

A few things worth knowing:

• The world runs on your machine. When you close Minecraft or shut your laptop, the world goes offline and your friends get booted.
• Performance depends on your hardware and your upload speed. P2P is direct between players, so a slow home connection means a laggy session.
• The host’s settings (difficulty, game rules, cheats, etc.) apply to everyone who joins.

4. Joining a friend’s world

Going the other direction is just as simple:

1. Open your Friends List
2. Find a friend whose world is open to Online
3. Click Request to Join (or accept their invite if they sent one first)

Once they accept, you’ll drop straight into their world. No IP, no port, no copy-pasting a string of numbers into the multiplayer screen.

When the native feature is enough

The Friends List is brilliant and it’s the right tool for a lot of cases. You probably don’t need a server if:

• You’re playing vanilla Minecraft
• You’re a small group of players (2–4 players)
• You’re all online at roughly the same time
• The host has a modern PC and a good upload speed
• You don’t mind the world only being available when the host is playing

For a quick weeknight session with a couple of friends, this is going to be the easiest option Java has ever had.

When you’ll want a Seedloaf server instead

P2P is great for casual play, but it hits a wall the moment your server gets serious. Here’s when you might look for a hosted server:

You want to play with mods or plugins

The Friends List feature is for vanilla Java. The moment you want Fabric, Forge, NeoForge, or a Paper-based server, you’re going to need alternative hosting options. Every player has to have the exact same mods installed, and someone has to be the source of truth for the modpack and configuration. A Seedloaf world gives you a dedicated mods or plugins folder you can drop files into without rebuilding everyone’s setup. See Installing Mods/Plugins for the full walkthrough.

Your laptop can’t carry the world

P2P offloads everything onto the host’s machine — CPU, RAM, chunk generation, mob AI, etc. If you have a lower end PC running vanilla Minecraft solo, adding three more players who all want to load new chunks at once is going to be a challenge. A Seedloaf server runs on dedicated hardware so your machine doesn’t chug.

You want the world online when you’re not

This is the big one. With P2P, the world is only alive when the host is. Our premium servers are up 24/7, meaning your world stays up on its own schedule.

You’re playing with more than a small group

Once you’re past five or six players, P2P starts struggling. Home connections aren’t built to upload world data to ten people at once, and the host’s machine becomes a bottleneck for everyone. Dedicated hosting is designed to handle this.

You want Bedrock friends to join

Native P2P is Java-only. If you’ve got friends on Bedrock — Switch, Xbox, PlayStation, phones, the Windows app — they can’t join a P2P session. Seedloaf supports Geyser, which bridges Bedrock players straight into your Java world.

You want voice chat, backups, file access, or real admin tools

P2P gives you the world and not much else. If you want Simple Voice Chat, automated backups, a console, the ability to upload a custom world, datapacks, or fine-grained user roles. Seedloaf gives you access to all of this.

You hit a sketchy NAT or carrier-grade routing

P2P relies on your two machines being able to talk directly. If you’re behind a strict CG-NAT (common on mobile-tethered or some apartment ISPs), the connection can fail, and there’s not much you can do about it from inside Minecraft. A Seedloaf server allows everyone to connect reliably.

TL;DR: use the Friends List for casual vanilla sessions with a couple of friends, and spin up a Seedloaf world the moment you want mods, more players, better hardware, or a world that doesn’t disappear when you close your laptop. The two options complement each other - pick whichever fits the session you’re trying to run.