Minecraft Bedrock Edition Explained: Pocket Edition to Now

Bedrock Edition is the version of Minecraft that runs on phones, tablets, Chromebooks, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and Windows. It’s built from one codebase written in C++, which is why the same world, features and updates show up on all of those devices, and why their players can join each other. If you’ve played “Minecraft PE” on a phone, you’ve played Bedrock.

From Pocket Edition to Bedrock

Bedrock grew out of Minecraft: Pocket Edition, the 2011 phone version. In 2017 the Better Together Update put phones, Windows 10 and Xbox One on the same code and dropped the “Pocket Edition” name. Switch and PlayStation joined later, and the older console editions (Xbox 360, PS3 and the rest) stopped getting updates. Today “Bedrock Edition” and plain “Minecraft” mean the same thing on every non-Java platform. The full family tree is in every Minecraft edition explained.

What Bedrock does best

Cross-play. A friend on a phone, another on PlayStation and you on Xbox can all be in one world. A free Microsoft account links them up; consoles also need their online subscription. How to play Minecraft multiplayer covers every way to connect.

Runs on modest hardware. Bedrock is much lighter than Java and plays well on mid-range phones and older laptops, which is a big reason it dominates in countries where most people game on a phone.

One Realm for every device. A Minecraft Realm for Bedrock can be joined from any Bedrock platform. Moving a world between your own devices is done with a .mcworld file; see how to export Bedrock worlds.

Marketplace and add-ons. The Marketplace sells (and sometimes gives away) worlds, skin packs, texture packs and mash-ups, paid with Minecoins. Add-ons let you change mob behavior and add items without traditional modding.

Gameplay differences from Java

Most of the game is identical, but a few things catch players out when they follow a Java tutorial:

• Combat has no attack cooldown, so faster clicking does more damage, and there’s no sweeping attack.
• Redstone has no quasi-connectivity and updates in a different order, so many Java contraptions and farms don’t work. Look for Bedrock-specific designs.
• The Wither gets tougher with difficulty on Bedrock: 300 health on Easy, 450 on Normal and 600 on Hard. On Java it has 300 on every difficulty.
• Some drops and spawns have differed between editions, though Mojang has been aligning them. Drowned trident drops, for example, were brought down to Java’s 8.5% rate in Bedrock 1.21.120.
• Touch controls on phones and tablets, with optional controller and keyboard support.

If you’re picking between editions, Java vs Bedrock has a side-by-side table.

Getting Bedrock

Phones, tablets and Chromebooks get it from Google Play or the App Store, consoles from their own stores, and Windows players get it free with the PC purchase. Start with how to download Minecraft on Android, or pick your device from the download hub. Bedrock-specific guides are collected on the Bedrock Edition hub.