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Dating back to roughly November 2023, Minecraft: Bedrock Edition has undergone a litany of UI changes in its experimental betas known as previews. It appears that Mojang is far from finished tweaking their new-look UI, as they announced on the game's official X account that its latest preview has also incorporated a revised version of the Friends tab found both in the main menu and in-game.
The new Friends tab includes a renamed "add friends" button that now reads "search for players," the removal of Minecraft's "no friends" state for the Friends tab, division between online and offline friends, as well as improved text-to-speech functionality, which should make finding fellow players and enjoying the game world together an easier proposition when this Minecraft UI change reaches vanilla.
Breaking down the changes to the Friends tab in Minecraft Bedrock's preview
Back when Minecraft Bedrock Preview 1.20.60.21 was released in November 2023, the tweaks now seen in Mojang's more recent betas were implemented. This included the division of offline/online friends and adding a join button to those actively playing the game. The "you have no friends" screen was removed, and adding players was renamed to better represent the friend search function.
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The improved text-to-speech narration should also be a huge plus for players who need the additional accessibility, and having a divided line between online/offline players should also save Minecraft fans some time spent scrolling through their Xbox/Microsoft friends list to find players that are online or playing the game. The Friends tab is also less obtrusive than the previous Friends list.
Since this new UI change is currently in Minecraft Bedrock preview, it might still be a while before it makes its way to some platforms in an official vanilla release, as consoles like Nintendo Switch still don't have access to previews. Be that as it may, compared to the process of adding and inviting friends to worlds in the past, this Friends tab/drawer is a very streamlined improvement.
Many fans seemed to think so as well. Overall, the new Minecraft UI improvements made to Java and Bedrock Edition have been well-received, and plenty of players were impressed with the effort to modernize the game's interface. A few fans even hoped for a similar Friends tab in Java Edition, although that would likely be a trickier proposition since Java doesn't use Xbox Live.
All things considered, it might be a while before the full slate of UI improvements make the jump from experimental snapshots/previews, but fans seem pretty excited for the game to leave the 2010s in the past and bring the interface into the new age. It remains to be seen how these changes are received, but Mojang seems to be moving in a positive direction.
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