Minecraft 26.2 Snapshot 7 Adds Friends and P2P

Mojang released the Java Edition testing build minecraft 26.2 snapshot 7 on 12 May 2026, delivering an integrated social layer and direct multiplayer hosting without external servers. Alongside these network features, the snapshot updates environmental mechanics around Potent Sulfur, introduces music from fingerspit, and changes resource pack sign rendering.

Built-in Friends List and Peer-to-Peer Hosting

Snapshot testing now includes a native social interface accessible via the pause screen or the default keybind O. The system handles friend requests through profile names and monitors connectivity states directly within the client.

Social Interface and Notifications

The Friends List appears as an in-game overlay with two functional tabs. The Friends tab displays current contacts alongside real-time status markers: "Offline", "Online", "In a world", or "In a joinable world". The Pending tab centralises incoming requests and outgoing invites. Toast alerts pop up for sent, received, or accepted invitations, rendering player face skins whenever available. Background polling occurs once every sixty seconds when the interface is open, dropping to every five minutes when closed. Xbox profile settings interact directly with this screen: setting chat to "Friends Only" on an Xbox profile hides messages from non-friends.

Multiplayer Options and P2P Worlds

The traditional Open to LAN prompt has been replaced by the Multiplayer Options screen. This interface governs world visibility with three distinct scope settings:

• Off: Disables external incoming connections entirely.
• Local: Restricts connectivity strictly to local network participants, mirroring classic LAN behaviour.
• Online: Allows hosts to bridge sessions across the internet through direct peer-to-peer routing without manual port forwarding.

Players on the host side can dispatch direct world invites, while remote players can request entry to any world flagged as joinable. For groups evaluating the difference between local hosts and persistent environments, a dedicated server vs listen server architecture dictates whether the world stays active when the owner shuts down their client.

World Mechanics and Hazard Changes

Environmental interactions in cave systems receive major technical adjustments in this snapshot, altering how specific hazards behave around player structures.

Potent Sulfur and Gas Propagation

Potent Sulfur geysers calculate eruption intervals and cooldowns from block positions, ensuring the timing remains identical even if the block is mined and replaced. Placing Lava beneath Potent Sulfur produces a continuous eruption with slightly muffled audio, contrasting with periodic bursts over Magma. Noxious Gas can now ascend through non-collidable waterlogged blocks and disperse across non-collidable structures. Players can utilise Scaffolding or Copper Grates above erupting blocks to ride the vertical entity boost without incurring damage from the rising gas.

Cave Adjustments and New Audio

Sulfur Caves feature altered environmental presentation, reducing the green saturation of grass blocks within the biome. The Slow Bouncy Sulfur Cube archetype loses its buoyant properties in fluids. In addition, players digging through chest minecarts inside Sulfur Cave biomes can discover the new "Bounce" music disc created by fingerspit, which outputs a redstone comparator signal strength of 8. The composer also provides five ambient tracks: "Shores", "Memories", "Nightly", "Home", and "Ebb".

Technical Breaking Changes for Packs and Servers

Administrators testing snapshot infrastructure on our Minecraft 26.2 servers index will need to verify client-side resource structures and custom data packs.

Resource Pack Version 87.0

Resource Pack specifications advance to 87.0. Standing Signs and Hanging Signs transition entirely to regular block models, abandoning built-in entity models. The update removes the minecraft:signs texture atlas completely. Textures for sign items now pull from block/<wood_type>_sign.png and block/<wood_type>_hanging_sign.png, with custom editor backgrounds located at gui/sign/<wood_type>.png. Text on signs cannot currently be configured through custom models.

Data Pack Version 105.1

Data packs update to format 105.1. Mojang added two registry tags to manage volcanic mechanics:

• #causes_periodic_geyser_eruptions: Identifies blocks triggering standard timed eruptions under Potent Sulfur.
• #causes_continuous_geyser_eruptions: Defines blocks that force constant eruptions when positioned beneath Potent Sulfur.

What Players Will Experience

Navigating the title screen will present players with a first-time confirmation prompt to opt into the Friends List service. Managing presence settings in Online Options allows individuals to choose between "All", "Limited" (showing only online or offline status), or "None" (appearing entirely offline to contacts). Known client defects flagged by Mojang in this testing release include desynchronisation when cancelling or rejecting friend requests before the other party responds, and an issue where users with Xbox profiles configured to "Friends Only" cannot view their own in-game chat messages. Those wanting to explore public community worlds instead of client-hosted sessions can check the main Minecraft server list.