How to Make a Minecraft Server on Your Phone (Android or iPhone)

Minecraft on your phone is Bedrock

The “Minecraft” app on Google Play and the App Store is Bedrock Edition (the one on consoles and in the Windows store). Minecraft Java, the PC one, has no official phone version, and the two editions can't see each other without help.

That's not a problem: a Java server with Paper lets Bedrock players in with two plugins, Geyser and Floodgate, so phone and PC players play in the same world (Java and Bedrock together). With mods (Fabric, Forge, NeoForge) that doesn't work: from a phone you can only join a server without mods.

Without a server: playing in your own world

For an afternoon with friends you don't need a server. In Bedrock, your world's settings have a “Multiplayer” section: with it on, your Microsoft account friends (or anyone on your Wi-Fi) can join your world while you play.

The catch is exactly that: the world exists while your phone has it open. If you leave, it crashes or the battery dies, the game is over for everyone. There are apps that run a server inside the phone itself, with the same catch multiplied: the phone on, the app open, getting hot, and friends outside your home unable to join unless you open ports on your router. Realms, Mojang's paid service, solves it for a subscription and without plugins.

A real server, created from your phone

A server on a host doesn't live on your phone: the phone is just the remote control. At NapNodes everything is done in the browser (nothing to install) and the free server needs no card (what the free server includes). Step by step:

1. Create your account

   On napnodes.com/en, “Create your free server” and pick Minecraft. Name, email and password (a minute), then confirm your email from the link you get.

2. Find your server

   It shows up in “My servers” within a couple of minutes. If you reached the panel some other way and don't see it, ask for it in “Buy”: the free server is above the plans.

3. Start it

   In “Home”, “Start”. If there's no room right then, you go into the queue to start and it lets you know when it's your turn.

4. Turn on Bedrock

   “Menu” (bottom right) → “Mods & plugins” → the “Bedrock” tab → “Turn on Bedrock”. It installs Geyser, Floodgate and ViaVersion and the server restarts twice: a couple of minutes. When it's done, the same tab shows you the address and the port.

5. Add it in your Minecraft

   In the app: “Play” → “Servers” → “Add Server”, with that address and that port (you have to type the port). Your phone friends do the same; PC friends on Java only need the address.

Running it from your phone: where everything is

On a phone, the panel has a bar at the bottom. Inside a server: “Home” (start, stop, the meters and the “Address to play”), “Console”, “Files”, “Settings” (the server's settings: server.properties, world rules and players, each with a plain-English name) and “Menu”, which opens everything else: “Mods & plugins”, “Friends”, “My plan & invoices”, “Help” and “Advanced settings”.

Commands go in “Console”, without the slash. Watch out with Bedrock players' names: Floodgate puts a dot in front so they don't clash with a Java account, so to make yourself an admin it's op .YourName, with the dot. For the whitelist of Bedrock players, fwhitelist add YourName instead of whitelist add (the rest of the commands, in the admin commands guide).

To share the server on WhatsApp: “Home” → “Address to play” → “Copy the link” gives you a page with the address and how to join. Tell your phone friends the port too, because the Bedrock app asks for it.

What to know first

The free server turns itself off after 20 minutes with nobody on and you start it again from “Home”: with your phone at hand, it's two taps before playing. If you don't want to start it every time, a plan is always on, with no queues and with backups, and it's the same server with its world (upgrading the free server to a plan). You pay from your phone with a card, Google Pay or Apple Pay.

From your phone you can also install plugins (in “Mods & plugins”, searching by name) and upload single files in “Files”. To upload a whole world from a PC, better do it from the PC (moving your world to the server).

Frequently asked questions