UPDATE: We'll be updating this article with all the new changes, fixes and features the beta gets as it gets them! Players on certain Minecraft platforms have Phase One of the Update Aquatic now - read more about that here.

Bedrock players! From today, if you're playing Minecraft on Android, Windows 10 or Xbox One, you can try a beta of the Bedrock Update Aquatic! It'll be launching on these platforms throughout the day so keep checking! This beta includes features like new swimming animations, stripped logs, tridents, Prismarine stairs and slabs and a mysterious new hostile mob that you really don't want to meet on the ocean floor...

If you can't wait to meet this new mob and offer them a big lovely hug (hey, it's your life) then here's how you can access the beta!

First, download the beta for your chosen platform, using this handy guide.

As with all betas, please be sure to back-up your worlds before playing them on a beta build. Remember that beta builds can cause unexpected things to happen in your game, so protect your worlds by always making a backup! Beta players also do not have access to Minecraft Realms and cannot join the games of players who are not on the beta, or have players not on the beta join their worlds.

Once you've downloaded the beta, you'll need to go into Game Settings. You'll see an option to Use Experimental Gameplay. Like in this screenshot here:

Enabling this will allow you to test some of the new, not-yet-fully-released features from the Update Aquatic while keeping them safely inside a world file of their own. These are not all of the Update Aquatic features coming to Minecraft; more features will be introduced in future betas! Please be aware that once you have turned the toggle on, you will not be able to toggle it off as this could cause problems with your world. This world option is not considered a cheat and you can still earn achievements if your world is set-up to allow achievements. These features are incomplete and are not representative of final gameplay but feedback is absolutely welcome! Please keep in mind that using Experimental Gameplay will make your game more unstable, so we recommend to not do anything you want to be permanent in worlds with this feature switched on.

But if you do choose to select this 'Use Experimental Gameplay' option in one of your existing worlds, it creates a new version of this world with 'EX' at the beginning of the name. So if you have problems with the new version of your world with the experimental gameplay features enabled (that's the one with EX in the title), don't panic! You can always go back to the original version of that world.

Enjoy trying out those new Update Aquatic features! Oh and Java players, we haven't forgotten about you – go here to see the latest Snapshot.

Shall we end on the changelog and a gallery of screenshots of what you can expect to find in the beta? Or shall we end on a poem I wrote about how much I like cobblestone? Yikes, let's go with the former:

Experimental Gameplay

A handful of features from Update Aquatic have been added to the beta via Experimental Gameplay. These features are incomplete and are not representative of final gameplay but feedback is absolutely welcome!

• Added Drowned mobs
• Added the Trident and new enchantments (Channeling, Loyalty, Riptide and Impaling)
• Added Stripped Wood
• Added Slabs and Stairs for Prismarine, Prismarine Brick, and Dark Prismarine

Fixes

• Iron Golems no longer spawn when Mob Spawning is disabled
• Rain, smoke particles, and shadows are no longer visible through lava
• Disabling "Visible to LAN Players" for one world no longer disables it for all worlds
• Buttons cloned in a "pressed" state no longer remain pressed forever
• A warning now appears instructing not to close the game when exporting a world
• The power output of Redstone Comparators is no longer lost after a world is converted from Xbox One Edition
• Pick Block no longer replaces the item currently selected in the hotbar if other slots are empty

Fixes for bugs introduced during Beta:

• Increased stability and fixed several crashes
• Abandoned mineshafts no longer generate above ground
• Fixed improper Mushroom Block obtained from giant red mushrooms when using Pick Block
• Tools now work properly and no longer shake in-hand
• Sticky Pistons no longer turn into regular Pistons after being renamed
• Tripwire Hooks once again appear in Jungle Temples
• Players can once again stand on top of ladders
• Mob heads can no longer be duplicated by placing them in water
• Strongholds once again generate with Mossy Stone Brick and Cracked Stone Brick
• The maximum render distance on Xbox One X is once again 22 chunks
• More than one line of text can once again be placed on signs
• The B button no longer has to be pressed twice on the controller to deselect a skin in the Skin Picker

Beta updates introduced on June 13th and June 20th 2018

New Features:

• Phantom Membrane
• Potion of Slow Falling
• Phantom mobs will now spawn in the night skies if a player hasn't slept in over three in-game days
• Barrier Blocks!
• Barrier Blocks are great for map makers to limit players to certain areas of the world
• Barrier blocks can be placed in Creative mode and are invisible in Survival and Adventure modes
• Barrier blocks can only be obtained using commands and do not appear in the Creative inventory

Changes:

• Menu and inventory tabs can now be navigated using the [ and ] keys (Can be remapped in Settings)
• Pages can now be turned in the Book & Quill using the controller bumper buttons

Fixes:

• Fixed a crash that occurred when placing renamed items in an Anvil's output slot
• The Ender Dragon is no longer missing the texture on its neck when playing the Norse Mythology Mash-up Pack
• Fixed the mining cracking animation being out of sync when mining from a boat
• Increased the health of Phantoms from 10 to 20
• Fixed a couple of pixels on the Phantom's texture
• Phantoms are now considered undead mobs
• Phantoms can now drown in water
• Phantoms' eyes now stay visible when under the invisibility effect
• Phantoms now fly up after spawning in Creative mode
• Changes to the Phantom flying animation
• TNT exploding underwater no longer deals damage to players and other entities
• Drowned now have a much easier time attacking players that are swimming above them
• Activating an End Portal will now replace any blocks inside the portal
• Opening Book & Quill on touch devices no longer causes blocks to break
• Elder Guardians now drop Wet Sponges when killed
• Fixed floating Rails that generated in abandoned mineshafts
• Fixed certain variants of Rails having an incorrect hitbox size
• Fixed monster spawners appearing empty on converted Console Edition worlds
• Dolphins can no longer attack players through solid blocks
• The Resistance effect will now protect against the Wither effect
• Quick moving items from the hotbar to a container now works as intended
• Cloning containers no longer removes their custom names
• Hitting the Enter key in the inventory no longer moves the cursor in/out of the text field or grabs/drops items
• Particles no longer drift in water from Enchanted Arrows
• Fixed several crashes that occurred during gameplay
• Fixed a crash that occurred when using Pick Block in a spot where a mob just died
• Increased performance for menu load times
• Fixed water flowing incorrectly from stairs that contained water source blocks
• Top Snow will now break once it hits water
• Fixed received items disappearing after trading a renamed item with a Villager
• Maps once again update properly when held in the main hand
• Players are now able to return to the Overworld if an End Portal is on their spawn point
• Lowered the volume of the 'punching air' sound effect
• Fixed Guardians spawning even when Mob Spawning is disabled
• Fixed Strays and Skeletons having trouble leaving the water to attack players
• Food particles no longer gradually change position after swimming and will always come out of the player's mouth area
• Observers will now detect changes with Droppers, Dispensers, Brewing Stands, Farmland, Saplings, Sugar Cane, Fire, and Grass blocks
• Items can once again be crafted from the Recipe Book while the Craftable filter is disabled and the player only has enough materials to craft a single recipe
• Fixed the speed boost given by Dolphins being too slow when wearing armor with Depth Strider
• Wolves no longer get stuck attacking Skeletons that are underwater
• Donkeys and Mules can now only be ridden by players after being tamed
• Blazes now attack Snow Golems
• Using the '/setblock' command on Redstone components will now properly update and power the mechanism
• Command blocks now correctly conduct Redstone power
• Operator permissions are now granted to players when the host creates a world with Trust Player Permissions set to Operator
• Buckets now stack properly when getting ejected from crafting output
• Experience orbs spawned with the '/summon' command will now grant experience to players
• The gamepad cursor can now be used to navigate Villager trades
• Fixed overlapping issues with the Dragon Head equipped on the inventory screen
• The Crafting Table's output field hover state now matches the field's size
• Selecting the output of an uncraftable recipe no longer causes the output item to disappear

Enjoy the beta!

Tell us what you think about this beta by tapping on the Feedback button in the main menu or joining the official Minecraft Discord at discord.gg/Minecraft