Minecraft on your phone: from Pocket Edition to Bedrock Mobile

From Pocket Edition to Bedrock

Minecraft debuted on phones on August 16, 2011 as Minecraft: Pocket Edition. The first version (Alpha 0.1.0) came out only for the Sony Xperia Play, an Android phone, and it reached iOS and other Android devices later that year. It was a heavily stripped-down version of the game: 36 block types, Creative mode only, no mobs and a limited world of 256x256x64 blocks.

Despite those early limits, Pocket Edition quickly became a sales hit. Over the next six years the team gradually caught up with Java Edition, adding Survival mode (0.2.0), infinite worlds (0.9.0), the Nether (0.12.1), redstone (0.13.0), ocean monuments (0.16.0) and finally the End dimension with the Ender Dragon in version 1.0.0 (December 2016).

In September 2017, with the Better Together Update (version 1.2.0), Mojang officially dropped the "Pocket Edition" name. The mobile version became part of the unified Bedrock Edition platform, which connects players on Windows, Xbox, iOS and Android through shared crossplay (Nintendo Switch joined in 2018, PlayStation 4 in 2019). Since then, Minecraft on a phone has been a full, regular version of Bedrock Edition, updated at the same time as the other platforms.

You'll find more details on each stage of that road on the Pocket Edition history page.

Pocket Edition timeline

Download Minecraft for your phone

You buy Minecraft for mobile devices once and play without limits. All future updates are free. The official download links are below:

System requirements

Minecraft Bedrock is well optimized on phones. Even budget smartphones with 2-3 GB of RAM handle smooth play at 30-60 FPS. Here are the minimum and recommended requirements:

On older devices it's worth lowering the render distance to 6-8 chunks and turning off fancy graphics. For more detailed tips, see our beginner's guide.

What sets the mobile version apart?

Minecraft on a phone is the full Bedrock Edition, but a few things set it apart from the PC and console versions:

• Touch controls - a dedicated interface with a virtual joystick, a jump button and a crosshair. You can also connect a Bluetooth controller (Xbox, PS4/PS5) or a keyboard and mouse.
• Marketplace - access to the official store with community-made maps, skins, textures and worlds. Packs you buy on your phone are available on every Bedrock platform.
• Offline play - unlike some console versions, on a phone you can play single-player completely offline, e.g. on a plane.
• Lowest price - the mobile version is the cheapest of all Minecraft editions (29.99-34.99 PLN vs. 119.99 PLN on PC).
• Performance - the Bedrock engine (C++) is much lighter than Java Edition. A phone with 3 GB of RAM can hold a smooth 60 FPS, which takes far stronger hardware on Java.

At the same time, the mobile version doesn't support mods in the traditional sense (like Forge/Fabric on Java Edition). Instead, Bedrock offers add-ons and behavior packs, which change gameplay through the official API. You'll find more about add-ons on the Bedrock Edition add-ons page.

Crossplay with other platforms

The biggest strength of mobile Minecraft is crossplay. Since the Better Together Update (2017), players on phones can join a world hosted on Xbox or Windows, since 2018 also on Nintendo Switch, and since 2019 on PlayStation. All you need is to sign in with a (free) Microsoft account and invite your friends.

Crossplay works both in regular multiplayer worlds and on Minecraft Realms, private servers hosted by Mojang. A Realm at 34.99 PLN a month supports up to 10 players at the same time, regardless of platform.

Besides Realms, a phone can connect to public Bedrock servers. We collected the addresses and ports to enter in the game in our list of Minecraft servers for mobile.

You'll find a comparison of the mobile version with Java Edition on our Java vs Bedrock page. A detailed guide to the whole of Bedrock Edition is on the Bedrock Edition page.

Frequently asked questions