Joining a Minecraft server on console: the three methods compared

On PS5, PS4, Xbox and Nintendo Switch, Minecraft has no “Add server” button: the Servers tab only shows Mojang’s partner servers. To join any other Bedrock server there are three methods, and only three. Huby, an Xbox friend whose world you join, with nothing to configure. A modified DNS, the historic BedrockConnect recipe. BedrockTogether, an app on your phone. Here is what each one needs, what it does, and when it breaks.

At a glance

	Method 1: Huby	Method 2: DNS (BedrockConnect)	Method 3: BedrockTogether app
What you need	A Microsoft account in the game	Changing the console’s network settings	A phone on the same Wi-Fi
Console setting	None	The DNS, per Wi-Fi network	None
Extra device	None	None	The phone, app open while you play
Consoles	PS5, PS4, Xbox, Switch	PS5, PS4, Xbox, Switch	PS5, PS4, Xbox; Switch by another route
Next time	Play › Friends › Huby	Open a partner server again	Relaunch the app, type the address again
Your server list	Kept with your account, on all your devices	Kept by the DNS server you use	On the phone
When it breaks	The world is not joinable: you can see it	The menu does not appear, no message	The console does not see the LAN game

Method 1: Huby, an Xbox friend to join

Huby starts from the one door the console never closed: joining a friend’s world. An Xbox account, HubyOnMC, keeps a world open around the clock. You add it as a friend, you enter its world, and a server menu transfers you wherever you want. It is the mechanism big Bedrock networks use to move you from a lobby to a minigame; here, it moves you from a hub to any server.

1. Sign in with a Microsoft account in Minecraft. On the home screen, choose Sign in. On Xbox it is already done: your Xbox account is a Microsoft account.
2. Add HubyOnMC as a friend. Play › Friends › Add friend, type HubyOnMC as one word, send the request. It is accepted automatically, within a minute.
3. Join its world. In the Friends tab, under Joinable friends, HubyOnMC offers a world named Huby. Select it.
4. Pick your server. The menu lists the featured servers, the known public servers, then your own. Add server asks for an address and a port, kept with your account.

No setting is changed, no device is needed beyond the console, and next time it takes three words: Play, Friends, Huby. Your list follows you to another console, to your phone and to Windows, where Huby is joined by its address, hubyy.fr, port 19134.

What Huby still needs. A Microsoft account, free. Online play enabled on the console: according to the publishers, Game Pass Core on Xbox and Nintendo Switch Online on Switch, and PlayStation Plus may be required on PlayStation. And a destination server that accepts Bedrock players: a Bedrock server, or a Java server running Geyser.

Your console’s guide: PS5, PS4, Xbox, Switch.

Method 2: changing the console’s DNS (BedrockConnect)

This is the method most tutorials have given since 2019. It consists of lying to the console: when Minecraft asks for a partner server’s address, a modified DNS answers with the address of an intermediate server, which shows a menu instead of the expected game. The open-source project behind the trick is called BedrockConnect.

1. Open the console’s network settings and switch the DNS configuration to manual.
2. Enter the primary DNS documented by BedrockConnect: 104.238.130.180 on Xbox and Switch, 45.55.68.52 on PS4 and PS5. As secondary DNS, 8.8.8.8, so the rest of the console keeps working. The exact path through each console’s settings is in which DNS for Minecraft on PS5, Xbox or Switch.
3. Relaunch Minecraft, go to Play › Servers, and open a compatible partner server: The Hive, Lifeboat, Mineville, Galaxite or Enchanted.
4. A BedrockConnect menu appears in place of the server. Choose Connect to a Server, type the address and port, confirm.

It works, often. It also breaks at every fragile link: the setting has to be redone on every Wi-Fi network; it applies to the whole console, store and updates included; the DNS addresses differ from one tutorial to the next and from one console to the next; the public DNS server, shared by thousands of consoles, is sometimes overloaded; and a big game update can stop everything until a fix. When it breaks, the menu simply does not appear, with no message. We go into detail in join a server on console without changing the DNS.

If your console already has a modified DNS, set it back to automatic before trying Huby: it does not need it, and neither does your console.

Method 3: the BedrockTogether app on your phone

BedrockTogether is a free app for iOS and Android, unrelated to Mojang and to Huby. It pretends to be a LAN game: your phone, on the same Wi-Fi as the console, announces a world called “BedrockTogether”, and when you join it, it transfers you to the server you typed in the app.

1. Install BedrockTogether on your phone, from the App Store or Google Play.
2. Put the phone and the console on the same Wi-Fi. No tethering, no guest network: the same network.
3. Type the server’s address and port in the app, then tap Run.
4. In Minecraft, look for the LAN game. Play › Friends, LAN games section: a game named BedrockTogether appears. Join it, and the game transfers you.

It is simple when it works, and it needs a phone every session: the app has to stay open while you play, the address has to be typed again or found in the app, and the server list lives on the phone. The Switch cannot see LAN games: BedrockTogether uses another route there, and sources disagree on what still works. Realms are not supported. When it breaks, it is almost always the network: console and phone on two different Wi-Fi networks, a router that isolates its devices from each other, or the app sent to the background.

Which one should you choose?

• You want it to work once and for all, with nothing to configure: Huby. A friend in your list, and nothing to redo, at home or elsewhere.
• You play on Switch: Huby or DNS. The app is the least reliable route on that console.
• You have no Microsoft account and refuse to create one: none of the three. Friends, partner servers and LAN games all go through the account signed in to the game.
• You already have DNS set up and it works: keep it while it works. The day the menu stops showing, Huby is the method that does not depend on DNS.
• You have a phone at hand and a single evening to play: BedrockTogether will do. For a habit, prefer a method that does not need a phone.

The three methods lead to the same place: a Bedrock server, or a Java server that accepts consoles thanks to Geyser, like SileneMC. What changes is how many steps you redo next time. And when a method fails, four articles detail the breakdowns: BedrockConnect not working, BedrockTogether not working, BedrockTogether on Switch and Minecraft console error messages.