New Minecraft snapshot tackles chat frustrations and makes shelves look nicer

Have you ever been typing a message to your friends in Minecraft, only for something to interrupt you and delete everything you've written? Annoying, right? That frustration is just one of the issues Mojang is tackling in a new update. Minecraft snapshot 25w33a packs in several welcome changes, including some fresh polish to The End and a very cute interaction for the new Copper Golems. It also marks the last round of testing for the planned features going into 2025's third game drop.

Minecraft snapshots have long been the ideal way to try the newest Minecraft updates before everyone else. They're specifically for the original Java build of the bestselling sandbox game, while those on Bedrock instead get their early looks through Minecraft Preview instead. In this week's update, Mojang says it has now implemented all its features for the third overhaul of the year, and will "start working on our next game drop, which we are excited to tell you about soon."

It might not be as immediately thrilling as a new creature or more furniture, but the change to chat drafts is a very welcome fix. Now, your unsent chat messages will be saved as drafts if the chat gets forcibly closed. This includes external sources such as dying or dialogs opening. However, they won't save if you intentionally back out, meaning you can still cancel your message if you decide it's not needed. If you'd like your typing to be saved in these cases, there's an additional option in the 'chat settings' menu to do so.

Any existing conversation will be pre-filled into the message box the next time you open the chat in a grayed-out form. To restore this, you can either type additional text, push the arrow keys, click it, or highlight it. Press enter and it'll be sent immediately; press backspace without first restoring it and you'll instantly delete it. An accompanying change means you can also now type in the chat box while standing inside a Nether Portal and you won't be interrupted.

The new shelf block has been changed, and items placed into it will now render in the middle, reversing a previous tweak, with the sizes of many of them updated to fit better. "Thank you for all your valuable feedback," Mojang writes. "Seeing the many creative ways you've been using this new block, we've decided to revert the change from last week that positioned items at the bottom of the shelf, as we agree that having the items centered provides more creative opportunities when building."

Elsewhere, an adorable new interaction has been added. Iron Golems will now sometimes plant a decorative flower onto their Copper Golem brethren. If you don't like the way this looks, you can trim it off with shears, although that feels a little mean to me. The flower will also be dropped if the affected mob turns into a Copper Golem statue block. I've already fallen in love with the latest companions, which help you keep your base in order and bring even more charm to the beloved building game, so this is a very sweet addition.

Update 25w33a also makes some additional alterations to The End dimension as part of the ongoing Vibrant Visuals overhaul. There's a redesigned skybox, which doesn't actually affect the climactic area's look most of the time. Occasionally, however, sudden flashes in the sky will flood the area with dramatic purple light, helping to sell the majesty of the Ender Dragon's home.

Minecraft snapshot 25w33a is available for testing now. You can read through the full patch notes courtesy of the Minecraft Java team for additional details, including updates to terms used by server commands and Minecraft mods.

If you're looking for that perfect start to your world, the best Minecraft seeds are the place to begin. You might also fancy trying something from our pick of the best crafting games on PC.

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