You won't have to rely on co-ordinates to track down your friends in Minecraft thanks to its upcoming drop

Minecraft has shared more details on what is coming in its second drop for 2025 in a post on the official blog, including its title—Chase the Skies. But, as excited as I am to take a trip aboard a Happy Ghast and appreciate the beauty of the world thanks to the Vibrant Visuals overhaul, one feature that I am thrilled the game is receiving as part of the update is the player locator bar.

Rather than begging your friends time and time again to share their co-ordinates after they decided it would be funny to run off mid-expedition, you'll now be able to track their whereabouts on a small bar at the bottom of your screen—where your XP bar usually goes.

Your fellow players will be represented by little coloured squares on the bar, a different colour for each player, making them a lot easier to chase rather than having to pull up your detailed co-ordinates and figuring out which direction will get you to theirs the fastest.

However, if you are the friend that is constantly running away, or you're playing a game of hide and seek, you'll still be able to remain undetected by crouching. I know, this isn't an ideal solution, since you'll have to spend a lot of time moving very slowly if you want to be unfindable for the entirety of your game session, but at least it's an option. The blog post didn't share any sort of information on whether or not the feature can be toggled on or off either, so I think it's safe to assume that it's a permanent addition for now.

Rather than just showing you which direction to head in, the locator bar goes that extra step further too. A little arrow will pop up when you get closer to your friends to show whether they have fallen deep underground or ended up stuck on the side of a mountain.

It's the ultimate tool for players who have an unreliable gang of fellow explorers, but as the friend who is constantly finding themselves in dire situations, I'm happy to finally have an easier way for people to come and pull me out of trouble. I'm just surprised it has taken this long for them to add it.