Snapshot

A snapshot is the term used to describe development versions for Java Edition updates. Every major update, and many minor updates, have snapshots released roughly weekly for player feedback on in-development features and changes.

Snapshots are unstable development versions for updates, which focus on adding features and new content to the game. Once an update is feature complete, the update cycle moves from the snapshot phase to the pre-release phase.

Snapshots are available in the Minecraft Launcher under the default "Latest snapshot" profile.

Current snapshots are named using the scheme XX.X Snapshot Y. For example, the first snapshot for version 26.1 is Java Edition 26.1 Snapshot 1.^[1][2] An exception to this naming convention after this date was the 2026 April Fools' update, 26w14a, which used the former naming scheme.

Snapshots released before December 16, 2025 used a unique naming format, unrelated to the 1.x version numbering used elsewhere. Snapshots used the format "YYwWWn". YY was the two-digit year, "w" simply stood for "week", WW was the two-digit week number within the year, and n was a unique letter identifier—starting with "a", then "b", and so on—which incremented when there was more than one release in a given week. For example, 18w10d was the fourth snapshot ("d") released in the 10th week of 2018. The highest letter reached is "e", a tie between 12w30e, 13w47e and 15w35e. The naming convention was only broken by 13w12~ and April Fools' snapshots.

Modern snapshots are set to be released on Tuesdays.^[3] Prior to Minecraft LIVE - March 2025, they were released on Wednesdays, barring delays.^[4] The day had been Thursday until the release of 14w25a on June 18, 2014, in the middle of development for 1.8.^[5][6] Subsequent snapshots may occur on any day thereafter or even on the same day.

April Fools' Day snapshots can be released on any day of the week, depending on what day April 1st falls on. April Fools' Day snapshots have been released on Monday (2024), Tuesday (2025), Wednesday (2015, 2020, 2026), Friday (2022), and Saturday (2023) in the past.

• The update with the most snapshots is 1.9, with a total of 56 snapshots.
• There have been 525 snapshots released in total.

Several members of Mojang Studios staff have appeared in the promotional banners released on the blog post for each snapshot.

• Agnes Larsson (LadyAgnes) has appeared in 1.11 snapshot 16w43a.
• Erik Broes (Grum) appeared in promotional screenshots on the Mojang blog for a number of snapshots and pre-releases. He was often hiding, and occasionally simply his player head was present. These were:
  • 13w19a, 13w21a, 13w22a, 13w23a, 13w24a, 13w25a, and 13w26a for 1.6.1.
  • 13w36a, 13w37a, 13w38a, 13w39a, 13w41a, 13w42a and 13w43a for 1.7.2.
  • 13w47a for 1.7.4.
  • 14w02a, 14w03a, 14w04a, 14w05a, 14w06a, 14w08a, and 14w10a for 1.8.
  • 16w04a for 1.9.
  • 16w40a, 16w41a, 16w43a, and 16w44a for 1.11.
  • 16w50a for 1.11.1.
  • 17w06a for 1.12.
  • 17w50a for 1.13.
• Jens Bergensten (Jeb) has appeared in:
  • 12w23a for 1.3.1.
  • 12w37a for 1.4.2.
  • 17w16a for 1.12.
• Maria Lemón (Excited) has appeared in:
  • 16w40a and 16w42a for 1.11.
  • 16w50a for 1.11.1.
  • 17w13a and 17w15a for 1.12.
• Nathan Adams (Dinnerbone) has appeared in snapshot 14w03a for 1.8.

• The week number used in snapshots is not the same as the ISO week number defined in the ISO 8601 standard.^{[citation needed]}