For years, Minecraft Bedrock players have been complaining about the Minecraft Java features, such as Offhand Support.
And now there is news circulating on social media spread by a very famous and reliable data miner, “SmokeyStack” on Twitter, that the offhand feature is finally coming to Minecraft Bedrock soon, but is it really the case?
When will this feature finally be introduced?
As the official Twitter post quotes, “Bedrock Edition is getting offhand support soon.” Many users anticipate that it might be introduced very soon, like in a week or a month, but SmokeyStack also replied with a follow-up afterwards, saying that no progress has been made on this feature, and it’s still in the preparation stage.
So, we cannot expect this to arrive in the game for a few months at least. However, I think we will soon see the feature testing in the Beta and Preview versions of the game, where Mojang will want the Minecraft community for feedback.
Mojang may need the feedback because, unlike Java Edition, Minecraft: Bedrock Edition is more complex and supported on many devices, including controllers and mobile, and adding such features will also require changes to the User Interface, especially in the mobile version.
So, it’s expected that Mojang will surely ask us all for feedback to improve this feature over the course of updates in beta and previews. Which is also expected, as the Twitter post of SmokeyStacks had this picture attached:
It shows a Discord chat by SmokeyStacks himself, declaring that Minecraft is launching offhand support for Minecraft Bedrock soon, and what the Minecraft community expects.
Alternate Plugins till it’s finally released
As we all know, this feature is not coming very soon. So, for the sake of testing some plugins for you guys, I used the Offhand Addon MCPE (available on Curseforge), which allows players to double crouch to place an item in offhand.
And it was working fine. However, there are plenty of addons on CurseForge and minecraft marketplace, with the same/similar features, so you can choose whichever you prefer.
Is it even possible to introduce offhand support in MCPE?
Well, Minecraft Bedrock Edition has the functionality to use offhand support, which I accessed through these commands:
/replaceitem entity @p slot. weapon.offhand diamond_sword (Use any item you want to place in the offhand)
I used this command to place a shield and a diamond sword in my offhand, and it worked. However, it surely needs much more improvement as it works on blocks, but blocks get minimized in the display.
Also, when I accessed it through commands, I was able to place items in offhand by command, but when I went into inventory to remove them, I was not able to replace them with anything else.
Conclusion
To conclude, Mojand is definitely working on this feature, and we can expect this in future updates and before the actual update, even in the beta and previews. However, it will take a lot of time. Till then i prefer to use mods to experience the same thing and would advise you the same.
