New emote features for Bedrock Edition

Emoting in Bedrock Edition has, up until this point, been a lot like miming. Unless you’re looking at another player, you won’t know what they’re doing! With the new emote features, you’ll now see a chat string every time you emote. This means that even if your Realm buddies don’t see you frantically waving, they’ll be able to read it when it pops up in their chat (or listen to it depending on their accessibility settings). Yippee!

Our developers didn’t stop there, though. They’ve also hidden a secret easter egg in these chat strings, one that’s so secret they refused to tell me what it is. Apparently, to discover it you need to click your heels together, and emote the same thing a few times (okay, I lied! You don’t need to click your heels). I’ve got the “Dance the Conga” emote equipped at the moment, so I’m going to do that over and over again and see what happens! Will I end the dance in an incredible flourish? Will all my Realms buddies join in and dance with me? Open up Bedrock Edition and find out!

If you don’t want to join me on my emote-easter-egg discovery (or you simply dislike the idea of emote chat strings popping up) then don’t worry – players (and server owners) can also mute the emote chat in World Settings.

Quick emoting with new hotkeys

If you’ve never emoted before, then fear not! The new update will make that easier, too. Now when you spawn into your world, you’ll see some handy instructions that’ll guide you on how to open the chat and the emote wheel. 

The emote wheel is where you can choose between your emotes. Previously this held six slots, but now the emote wheel will be reduced to four. This is so you can emote more quickly, using hotkeys! Each of your four slots will be tied to a corresponding key on your keyboard or a button on your controller, meaning you can emote without pausing your game. Just press "B" on your keyboard if you play on PC or left on your console controller's directional pad*, and it’ll open a quick-emote box in the bottom left-hand side of your screen. You know what that means, right? Faster emoting and more conga dancing for me!

*Default control settings for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition.

Organizing your emotes

As well as making sure you’ve always got four emotes equipped as default (Wave, Simple Clap, Follow Me, & Over There!) it’ll also be easier than ever to see which emotes you own, and which you don’t. Head to the Dressing Room and you’ll discover your owned emotes (and any you’ve nabbed through achievements) in a box at the top. Isn’t that tidy? You’ll even be able to change which hotkeys correspond to which emote in this section, so if you’re a rebel who customizes their controls, then by all means, run wild!

Are you excited to try out the new emote features? I know I am! I’m going to load straight into my Realm and try and find all the emoting easter eggs I can. See you there, friends – I’ll be the one conga dancing!