In the Minecraft 1.19 update for Bedrock Edition, players on any device can join their friends on other devices and play in the same world.

"Minecraft" offers cross-platform play for both versions of the game — Bedrock and Java — but you can only play with users who own the same version.

In 2018, Mojang and Microsoft introduced a new version of Minecraft called the “Bedrock Edition,” which unified almost all platforms and allowed players to play with their friends across PC ...

In contrast, Java is specific to PC platforms (Windows, macOS, and Linux) and does not natively support cross-platform play with consoles or mobile devices.

It's great news for PS4 fans, as until now players on that platform have been limited to playing with other PS4 owners. It's also noteworthy for the fact that Minecraft is now a Microsoft property.

Minecraft players on the PlayStation 4 can rejoice, with Mojang adding in cross-play support with other platforms in Minecraft's new Bedrock Edition update that drops on December 10.

Java players can only play the game with other Java players on PC, whereas, Bedrock players can play cross platform with any other Bedrock edition player.

The two editions of Minecraft do have important differences. These are all the things you should consider when deciding between Minecraft Bedrock and Java.