Minecraft
Image: Xbox, Mojang

Minecraft, as you might have already seen, just rolled out its new 'Spring to Life' update and while it's filled with all sorts of new and exciting content such as new blocks, animal variants, and much more, there's also one particular feature that has long-time players rather excited.

It's the ability to pause - yes, the team at Mojang has now included this "highly requested feature" in the latest update, giving you the option to pause your game "when alone" in single player. It's worth noting how this is a slow rollout to "ensure stability" but after two weeks it should be "available to everyone".

Here's the full rundown from the official Bedrock changelog, which also notes how this feature does not work on a Realm, server, or when playing with others on a local server.

Minecraft Pause Feature

"We are thrilled to include a highly requested feature: the ability to pause the game in single player. The feature will be rolled slowly to ensure stability. After two weeks, it will be available to everyone."

  • Pause when alone: you can pause when you are alone in a local world owned by yourself.
  • Un-pause when joined: your game will un-pause if someone joins you.
  • Join notification: a notification will inform you that someone else has joined and that your game has resumed. The notification includes the option to takes you right back to the game, perfect if you are deep in a menu.
    • Note: The game will NOT pause if you are playing on a Realm, server or when playing with a friend on your local server.

You can find out more about the latest Spring to Life update in our full patch notes post. Last week, Mojang also hosted its first Minecraft Live event of the year where it announced Minecraft would be getting a graphics upgrade in the future.

Will you be making use of the pause feature in Minecraft? How are you finding the rest of this update so far? Let us know in the comments.