Quick Play

Quick Play is a feature available in the Minecraft Launcher, allowing players to directly join a singleplayer world or a multiplayer server, by skipping the screens and menus in-between.^[1]

Usage

The launcher with the Quick Play bar in the top right.

Quick Play instances are created automatically once you play in a world or a server. They appear as icons in a bar located in the top right of the launcher. Instances are sorted from the most recently played world (on the left) to the least recently played world (on the right).

There are a total of five slots. Once they are all filled, playing another world causes the oldest instance to be removed from the list, and the newest instance to be added. This behavior can be avoided by pinning instances; however, pinned instances still count for the five slots.

Quick Play works for both Java Edition and Bedrock Edition, and creates instances for single-player worlds, multiplayer servers and Realms.

If one plays a world with the same name, the icon is reused.

Disabling Quick Play

Settings related to Quick Play in the launcher.

Quick Play can be toggled in the launcher settings. Disabling it does not remove instances, therefore enabling it again displays previously saved instances.

To actually remove quick play instances, you can click on the "Delete All Quick Play Entries" button. After a confirmation dialog, it deletes all instances, pinned and unpinned, of the user currently logged in.

Options

The edit window for Java Edition quick play.

The edit window for Bedrock Edition quick play.

Quick Play instances can be customized by clicking on the button at the right of quick play icons.

An instance icon can be changed. For Java Edition, these are the same 3D-rendered icons as the ones for installations. For Bedrock Edition, these are 2D square icons. It is also possible to select a custom icon, which must be 128x128 pixels in size.

An instance can be pinned, which moves it to the very left. On the edit screen, pinned and non-pinned instances are separated by a vertical bar. To change order of pinned instances, you have to unpin and pin again an instance.

The third option, "Show Title Initial", displays the first letter of the instance name on the icon, in uppercase. For example, on the first image on the right, checking this option would display an uppercase white "M" in front of the logo.

Command line arguments

This feature is exclusive to Java Edition.

The following table describes the command line arguments used to launch the game directly into a world.

Argument	Description	Example
`quickPlayPath`	Takes a specified path of a file containing information about the world to join, relative to the run directory.	`--quickPlayPath "quickPlay/log.json"` (resolved into `.minecraft/quickPlay/log.json`)
`quickPlaySingleplayer`	Takes a specified identifier representing the folder name of the world.	`--quickPlaySingleplayer "New World"`
`quickPlayMultiplayer`	Takes a specified identifier representing the IP address and port of the server, separated by a colon.	`--quickPlayMultiplayer "localhost:25565"`
`quickPlayRealms`	Takes a specified identifier representing the ID of the Realm.	`--quickPlayRealms "1234"`

JSON format

This is the JSON format for launcher_quick_play.json, located in the root of the .minecraft folder.

[NBT Compound / JSON Object] The root object.
- [NBT Compound / JSON Object] quickPlayData
  - [NBT List / JSON Array] <remoteId>: A list of Quick Play instances. The field name is the remote ID of a Microsoft account.
    - [String] customizedIcon: The image data of the customized icon, if applicable.
    - [Long] epochLastPlayedTimeMs: The timestamp when the world or server was last played.
    - [String] id: The ID of the instance. For singleplayer, this is the folder name of the world. For multiplayer, this is the server IP address. If [String] source is Launcher, seems to always be bedrock-retail.
    - [String] name: The name of the instance, which is the user-defined name of the world or server.
    - [String] source: The source of the instance. Can be Java, Bedrock or Launcher. Additional fields depend on its value.
    - [Int] pinnedIndex: If the instance is pinned, represents the index in the pinned list.
      If source is Java, additional field is as follows:
    - [NBT Compound / JSON Object] javaInstance: An object representing a Java Edition quick play instance.
      - [String] configId: The ID of the launcher profile.
      - [NBT Compound / JSON Object] game
        [String] gamemode: The default game mode of the world. Can be adventure, creative, spectator or survival.
        
        [String] type: The type of the world. Can be singleplayer, multiplayer or realms.
      If source is Bedrock, additional field is as follows:
    - [NBT Compound / JSON Object] bedrockInstance: An object representing a Bedrock Edition quick play instance.
      - [String] gamemode: The default game mode of the world. Can be Adventure, Creative, Spectator or Survival.
      - [NBT Compound / JSON Object] local
        [String] levelId: The unique ID of the world.
        
        [String] name: The user-defined name of the world.
      - [String] type: The type of the world. Can be singleplayer, multiplayer or realms.
      - [String] versionId: The version ID of the instance. Seems to always be retail.
      If source is Launcher, additional field is as follows:
    - [NBT Compound / JSON Object] productQuickPlay: An object representing a Launcher instance. This type of instance does not appear in the launcher.
      - [String] productId: The ID of the product. Seems to always be bedrock.
      - [String] versionId: The version ID of the instance. Seems to always be retail.
- [Int] version: The version number of the file.

The Quick Play feature is stored only locally in the run directory.

History

Java Edition
1.20	23w14a	Added support for Quick Play, with new command line arguments that allow the game to be launched directly into a world.
Bedrock Edition
1.20.60	?	Added support for Quick Play.^[2]
Minecraft Launcher
2.7.12		Added quick play for Java Edition as an experimental feature, disabled by default.^[3]
2.17.13		Added quick play for Bedrock Edition, enabled by default.
2.17.13		Quick play for Java Edition is no longer experimental, and now enabled by default.
2.19.2		Quick Play has been temporarily turned off for Bedrock Edition.

References

↑ "Quick Play is coming to Java and Bedrock Edition" – Minecraft.net, February 12, 2024.
↑ "Quick Play is coming to Java and Bedrock Edition" – Minecraft.net, February 12, 2024. "A world will only be displayed in the bar once you’ve played it after updating to [...] version 1.20.60 of Bedrock Edition."
↑ Java Quick Play in the Launcher - August 15, 2023

Navigation

[1] "Quick Play is coming to Java and Bedrock Edition" – Minecraft.net, February 12, 2024.

[2] "Quick Play is coming to Java and Bedrock Edition" – Minecraft.net, February 12, 2024. "A world will only be displayed in the bar once you’ve played it after updating to [...] version 1.20.60 of Bedrock Edition."

[3] Java Quick Play in the Launcher - August 15, 2023

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