How a small tweak can help Mojang improve Minecraft's upcoming player locator feature

Minecraft recently introduced a new player locator bar feature for its summer game drop in 2025. It is currently in the beta and preview version 1.21.80.20, but will soon arrive in Java Edition snapshots. As the name suggests, this interesting new feature will be able to show where each player is in a multiplayer world.

While it is a great feature to be added to Minecraft, an argument can be made that Mojang could have added player heads as the indicator instead of simple dots.

Note: This article is subjective and solely reflects the writer's opinion.

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Why Mojang should have added player heads to Minecraft's player locator bar feature

As of now, Minecraft's new player locator bar feature showcases dots of various colors, each denoting a player's location. The locator bar only offers basic information, like the direction or the height at which a player is. When a player joins a multiplayer world, they get a colored dot on the locator bar that is automatically assigned by the game.

Though people can learn which color denotes which player, it can still be time-consuming and confusing. Moreover, players cannot change the color they are assigned, which can be perceived as a downside.

The player locator bar could have been much easier to read if it had player heads instead of dots (Image via Mojang Studios)

Hence, instead of using colored dots to represent players, Mojang could have shown player heads on the player locator bar. The picture shared above shows the original player locator bar implementation on the left and then how player heads will look if Mojang plans to add this feature.

Coding the feature into the player locator bar can be extremely easy as well. The game simply needs to pick the face textures from each player's skin and paste it as a dot on the player locator bar. This will allow the game to show custom skins on the bar.

This small feature can add a bit of personality to the player locator bar. It will also help players locate each other faster since they won't have to memorize the colors assigned to each one.

Of course, it is worth mentioning that Mojang is still working on the player locator bar feature for the upcoming summer game drop. Hence, there are strong chances that they could bring massive changes to it and could also add this mechanic before release.

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