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Crossplay: Java + Bedrock on one server

Minecraft crossplay lets Java and Bedrock players — PC, consoles, phones, tablets — share one server. What it means, and what to select on Campfire to enable it.

What crossplay means

Minecraft is sold as two separate games that normally can’t play together: Java Edition (the original PC version, where servers, plugins, and mods live) and Bedrock Edition (Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, phones, tablets, and the Windows Microsoft Store version). A friend on a phone can’t join a plain Java server, and a Java player can’t join a Bedrock world.

Crossplay removes that wall: one server that both editions join, so the PC players, the console players, and the phone players all share the same world, at the same address. Campfire offers crossplay on every plan — it’s a single choice at server creation, with nothing to install or configure.

How Campfire does it

A crossplay-enabled Campfire server is a normal Java server with two extras installed for you automatically:

Geyser — a translation layer that speaks the Bedrock protocol and converts it to Java on the fly, so Bedrock clients see a server they can join.
Floodgate — lets Bedrock players sign in with their Xbox/Microsoft account, no Java account required.

Both are kept matched to your server’s software and version whenever it’s rebuilt — you never manage the jars yourself.

What to select to enable it

Crossplay is chosen when you create the server. Two ways to get it:

In New server, pick the Crossplay play style — “Phones, consoles and PCs all join the same world.” This turns crossplay on and only offers compatible software.
Or pick your software manually — Paper, Fabric, or NeoForge — and enable the crossplay toggle on the same step.

Crossplay needs server software that can run Geyser, which is why it’s available on Paper, Fabric, and NeoForge — not on Vanilla (can’t load plugins), Forge (no modern Geyser build), or Bedrock-only servers. If you just want survival with friends on mixed devices, Paper is the recommended pick.

Joining from each device

Everyone uses the same address from the overview page’s JOIN AT banner. On a crossplay server it includes the port (e.g. camp.campfire.host:25565) because Bedrock needs it spelled out:

Java — Multiplayer → Add Server, paste the whole address.
Bedrock (phone, tablet, Windows) — Play → Servers → Add Server; the part before the colon is the Server Address, the number after it is the Port.

Consoles (Switch, Xbox, PlayStation) don’t have an “add server by address” field for arbitrary servers — players there use the free BedrockTogether phone app (or a DNS workaround) to point their console at your server. See the crossplay guide for the walkthrough.

Good to know

Bedrock players appear with a . prefix on their name (Floodgate’s marker), so whitelist and OP entries for them include the dot.
The game stays Java under the hood, so plugins work for everyone — but mods that add new blocks or items need a matching client, which Bedrock can’t install. For modded crossplay, stick to server-side mods.
A few Java mechanics (combat timing, some redstone) feel slightly different through the translation layer — normal survival play is seamless.