How to download Minecraft Bedrock 1.20.50.24 beta and preview

Minecraft: Bedrock Edition continues to evolve and make adjustments in the post-Trails & Tales era. To that end, Mojang introduced the 1.20.50.24 preview for Bedrock, which brings bug fixes to address a few rendering and crashing issues that arose in recent updates. The preview also introduces a helpful way to access realms directly.

Although Minecraft: Bedrock Edition is available across a wide swath of platforms, those hoping to access the latest preview will need to do so on Windows 10/11 PCs, Xbox consoles, or Android/iOS mobile devices. Each device requires a slightly different approach to do so, but they're all easy to set up when it comes to accessing current and future previews.

How to download Minecraft 1.20.50.24 preview on all compatible platforms

Xbox consoles

To avoid confusion with the base version of the game, Microsoft offers Minecraft fans on Xbox consoles the ability to download a separate program specifically for previews. It can be accessed from the online store if you have purchased and downloaded a copy of the base game or if you have an active Xbox Game Pass subscription.

You can download the preview application by following these steps:

On your dashboard, open the Microsoft Store app.
Search for Minecraft Preview in the search field. Open the resulting store page that appears.
From here, hit the Download button. As long as you've purchased the base game on your account or have an active Game Pass subscription, the preview application should be added to your download queue. Afterward, all you need to do is return to your dashboard/library and open the program.

Windows 10/11 PCs

Minecraft Preview can be accessed on PC via the game's official launcher (Image via Mojang)

Thanks to the Microsoft Store application and the Minecraft Launcher, downloading/updating the latest preview can be accomplished on Windows PCs in just a few clicks. Regardless of whether you download the preview for the first time or just want to access the latest release by Mojang, the two programs mentioned above can accomplish this quickly.

You can access the latest preview by following these steps:

To update the preview if you've already installed it, open the Microsoft Store application and navigate to your library. Click the games tab and choose the preview from the list of programs that need to update. If it doesn't appear, you may need to press the "Get Updates" button. Once the download completes, simply return to the Minecraft Launcher and choose the latest preview via the version selector to the left of the Play button.
If you haven't downloaded the latest preview, open the game launcher and select the Windows Edition in the game list to the left of the window. Then, choose the latest preview from the version selector and click the Install/Play button. The launcher will download the necessary files and folders accordingly and then open the preview when it finishes.

Android/iOS mobile devices

Using Minecraft Preview is a bit different depending on a mobile player's OS (Image via Mojang)

Due to the substantial differences between how Google and Apple handle their respective app stores, fans playing the game on mobile phones will have a different approach to opting into the Preview Program. The good news is that the process is relatively simple for both Android and iOS platforms, though the latter can occasionally run into hangups when beta signups are full.

Regardless, you can download the latest preview with these steps:

For Android users, open the Google Play Store and then navigate to the game's store page. Scroll downward until you find a section that reads "Join the Beta" and click the accompanying link. Once that's taken care of, update your game app. The next time you open the game, it should run the latest preview instead of the base game.
On iOS, begin by downloading the Apple Testflight app, then open the app and use it to head to the Minecraft Preview signup page. Provide your account information if prompted, and you should be able to sign up for the Preview Program as long as signups aren't full. Afterward, just return to the app menu of Testflight and access the new preview.

Patch notes for Minecraft Bedrock 1.20.50.24

Players can now access realms immediately by clicking links in Preview 1.20.50.24 (Image via Mojang)

As previously mentioned, the 1.20.50.24 preview doesn't bring a plethora of new blocks or features but does introduce one quality-of-life addition and makes a few bug fixes to address a troublesome crash scenario and a rendering problem pertaining to armor trims.

Changes and fixes in Preview 1.20.50.24

Bedrock Edition can now be launched automatically and open a realm when players click a shared realm link like "minecraft://connectToRealm?realmId=<Id number>".
A bug where armor trims applied to armor wouldn't render correctly has been fixed.
A crash that occurred when a world with custom items is loaded has been fixed.

Bedrock Edition and Java Edition are continuing their development cycles as the 1.21 update approaches. Even though players may not think much of the 1.20.50.24 preview, there are undoubtedly several new betas in the future that should be packed with content for them to enjoy.