🔥 FlameLauncher for Android

Run Minecraft: Java Edition on Android.

---

---

1. What it does

This is Java Edition, not Bedrock. Join the servers your PC friends use, run the mods they run. A real OpenJDK boots inside the app process — this is not an emulator.

Versions and mods

Vanilla	Alpha and Beta through the current release
Mod loaders	Fabric · Forge · NeoForge · Quilt
Mods and modpacks	Search and install straight from CurseForge and Modrinth
Dependencies	Required mods are installed alongside automatically

The Java runtime is chosen automatically to match the version — 8 for 1.16 and below, 16 for 1.17, 17 through 1.20.4, 21 from 1.20.5, 25 for 26.x. Nothing to pick.

Graphics

Renderer	How	Best for
Zink 🌋	Vulkan → OpenGL (Mesa)	Modern GPUs, 1.17+ · use this for shaders
Krypton ⚛️	OpenGL → GLES 3.x	Broad version coverage, built in
GL4ES 🕹️	OpenGL → GLES 2.0	Old versions (1.12 and below), devices Zink won't run on
MobileGlues 🚀	OpenGL 4.x → GLES 3.2	Fastest for shaders · used by 26.3's OpenGL path

If Zink fails it steps down on its own: Freedreno (Adreno) → Panfrost (Mali) → GL4ES. You can also import a custom Vulkan driver (Turnip and similar) as a zip, in the AdrenoTools format.

Shaders run on Iris — reflections, shadows, coloured light.

Controls

• On-screen buttons — you place and size them yourself
• Hardware keyboard — picked up as soon as it connects
• Mouse — Pointer Capture, so looking around isn't bounded by the screen edge. Menus switch to an absolute cursor automatically; the wheel is the hotbar
• Gamepad — sticks and triggers included

Multiplayer

Ordinary servers, plus Online LAN for playing with a friend without renting a server: open a room, share the code, they join with it.

Account

Microsoft sign-in only. No game files ship with the app — you download them from Mojang's own servers with your own account.

---

2. Running it

What you need

Android 8.0 or later	API 26
arm64-v8a	Essentially any device from 2017 onward. 32-bit is not supported
4 GB free	App, game and a Java runtime
4 GB RAM recommended	Modpacks are a stretch below 3 GB
A paid account	Minecraft Java Edition

Unlike iOS, no JIT setup is needed. Android doesn't stop apps from generating code at runtime, so you install and go.

2-1. Install

1. Grab the latest APK from Releases
2. Android asks you to allow installs from unknown sources — allow it
3. Grant storage permission on first launch

2-2. First run

1. Sign in — avatar at the top → Microsoft account
2. Pick a version — left menu → the release tab
3. Pick a loader — vanilla, Fabric, Forge or NeoForge
4. Download — game files and a Java runtime; first time only, 5–15 minutes
5. Play — select it under the installed tab and press play

2-3. Turning on shaders

1. Install Fabric on the instance
2. Install Iris Shaders from the modpack browser — dependencies come along
3. Switch the renderer to Zink
4. In game: Options → Video Settings → Shader Packs

Heavy packs are a lot to ask of a phone. Start light — Complementary, or BSL on low.

2-4. Controls

The keyboard editor lets you place and resize the on-screen buttons. Hardware keyboards, mice and gamepads are picked up the moment they connect — nothing to configure.

2-5. When it doesn't work

Symptom	What to check
Installs, then closes immediately	Confirm the device is arm64-v8a. 32-bit is unsupported
Crashes mid-game	Out of RAM. Lower the heap allocation in options — counter-intuitive, but a smaller Java heap leaves room for textures. Lower the render distance too
A modpack won't start	With many mods the first boot takes minutes. If it still fails, try another renderer; Zink and GL4ES differ in what they tolerate
Shaders render garbage	Switch to Zink. GL4ES cannot drive shaders properly
A shader pack switches itself off (Mali GPUs)	Packs that use noperspective — Complementary and its forks — can't compile on Mali, so Iris falls back to no shaders. Turn the pack off to skip the attempt and load faster

---

3. Licence

AGPL-3.0, by obligation rather than preference.

A combined work takes the strongest copyleft it contains, and the Terracotta bundled here is AGPL-3.0.

Component	Licence	How it is used
Terracotta	AGPL-3.0	libterracotta.so + JNI binding (Online LAN)
PojavLauncher core	GPL-3.0	JNI / EGL / OSMesa bridges, LWJGL and exec hooks, AWT stubs
ZalithLauncher 2	GPL-3.0	Launch flow (NeoForge classpath, Forge processors, GLFW 3.4 stubs)
EasyTier	LGPL-3.0	inside Terracotta
libadrenotools	BSD-2-Clause	custom Vulkan driver loading
LWJGL (Pojav-patched)	BSD-3-Clause	lwjgl3/
OpenJDK (Temurin)	GPL-2.0 + Classpath Exception	bundled JRE

GPL-3.0 code may be combined into an AGPL-3.0 work — GPLv3 section 13 permits exactly this — and the result must be distributed under AGPL-3.0.

Correction to earlier releases. The LICENSE file used to contain LGPL-3.0, and this project's own code was listed as "no declared license". Both were wrong: the tree already contained GPL-3.0 (PojavLauncher) and AGPL-3.0 (Terracotta), so LGPL-3.0 was weaker than the combination allowed, and leaving the project's own code undeclared left the whole work ambiguous.

Custom Vulkan drivers (Turnip and similar) are not distributed by this project. Get them from a source you trust — official Mesa, K11MCH1/AdrenoToolsDrivers — and import them yourself.

See NOTICE for the details.

Minecraft is a trademark of Mojang AB. This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Mojang AB or Microsoft.