Luanti on Android

Minetest is available for Android and it could be downloaded directly on the Minetest website, Google Play or F-Droid. Even though it works on most Android devices, Android 4.0 or later is recommended. Android versions of Minetest are still in development and have bugs.

Please do not download unofficial Minetest builds from the Google Play and any other app store. The builds found there may contain excessive adverts or spyware. They may be distributed under proprietary terms, without the source code, which makes them illegal to develop. They may be old or unsupported.

Installing Minetest

Via Google Play

Install the app from Google Play. If your Android device prompted you to free up some storage before installing then please do so. However, if you're sure that the free storage is more than enough but it still prompt you to do so, then please read the instructions to install Minetest via APK.

Via F-Droid

F-Droid is a repository of verified free software Android apps and acts as an app store dedicated for free softwares.

To install Minetest from F-Droid, you are recommended to use the F-Droid client even though you can also download the APK from F-Droid. (see #Via APK)

Install the F-Droid client from its website and search for Minetest inside the client, then install the Minetest app. Alternatively, you could click this link and let the client open the Minetest detail page to install the app.

Via APK

Some users need to install the Android Package (APK) directly because their phone reported false free storage and force users to clean up space even though there is more than enough space to install the app.

If you need to install the APK file of Minetest, download the APK from Minetest website or F-Droid website instead of using APK downloader websites as these websites could modify the codes of APKs and inject unwanted contents to the app.

Please make sure that you have enabled "Install from Unknown Sources" before you attempt to install Minetest app APK. The common steps are:

Navigate to Setting > Security.
Scroll down and check the option "Unknown sources".
Tap OK on the prompt message.

Running Minetest for the first time

On Android 6.0 or later, you will be prompted to grant permissions upon the first run even if you have accepted them while installing. Please grant Minetest app the following permission when prompted to do so:

modify/delete SD card contents - needed to create Minetest folder and modify world data
read the contents of your card - needed to access Minetest folder in internal storage
full network access - needed for playing online in servers

Before installing any other mods or playing online, please try to open Minetest setting page. This is to make sure the formspecs window will not go beyond screen and made few things unplayable as reported by some users.

There should be tabbed pages once you open the app and you'll be in the "Main" tab. Please go to "Settings" tab and click on "Advanced Settings". If you see that the window goes beyond the screen and you can't click certain text, or you feel it is too large, then it might be worth to change the GUI Scaling now before you realize in-game windows (eg. inventories) will also go beyond the screen. However, if you feel everything is fine, go ahead and play singleplayer or multiplayer online with default GUI scaling.

To change the GUI scaling, do the following:

From Advanced Settings, go to Client > Graphics > Menus
Select "GUI Scaling"
Click on "Edit"
Tap on the green box, and replace 1 with 0.9
Click on "Save"
If the window still go beyond the screen or still too big, repeat steps with the number 0.9 replaced by 0.8, 0.7 etc. until you get it display correctly.

You could still change the settings after you play singleplayer or multiplayer.

In case you could not change the GUI scaling from the setting menu, do the following:

Open a plain text editor app (eg. Jota Text Editor)
Click on menu to open or edit text files
Navigate to your Internal Storage from that menu
Navigate to Minetest folder
Open the file Minetest.conf
Search for "gui_scaling = 1" and replace 1 with 0.9
If "gui_scaling = 1" does not exist, then just add "gui_scaling = 0.9" in new line
Save the file and open Minetest
If the window still go beyond the screen or still too big, repeat steps with the number 0.9 replaced by 0.8, 0.7 etc. until you get it displayed corretly.

Playing Minetest on Android

You are recommended to use Android device with touchscreen to play Minetest. If you want to play Minetest on Android device without touchscreen (eg. smart TV) or you prefer to play on keyboard and mouse even if your Android device has touchscreen then please make sure it could support physical mouse and keyboard, however certain actions could not be done without touchscreen (see #Play on Android without using touchscreen).

There will always be screen overlays that you could use to control the movement of players in-game. This overlay only exist on Android version of Minetest and it could not be turned off even if you don't want to or can't use them. The overlays will be hidden when a menu or inventory is opened.

Play on Android using touchscreen

The basic overlays you'll tap on screen are:

Three dots icon on the left side of screen
A gear icon on the top-right side of screen
Four arrow icons on the bottom-left side of screen
A dot and inverted triangle icons on the bottom-right side of screen

Available controls

Normal play

While you're playing the game normally (that is, no menu or inventory is shown), the following controls are available:

Look around: touch screen and slide finger
Double tap: place a node or use selected item
Long tap: dig node
All screen overlay actions

Menu or inventory

When a menu or inventory is displayed:

double tap outside menu or inventory area: close menu or inventory
tap on an item stack: select that stack
tap on an empty slot: if you selected a stack already, that stack is placed here
drag and drop: touch stack and hold finger down, move the stack to another slot, tap another finger while keeping first finger on screen. This places a single item from dragged stack into the slot where the first finger is touching. Tap another slot to put remaining stack.

Overlay functions

The function of these overlays are as follows:

Three dots icon

This icon situated on the left side of screen, it gives access to three more icons:

Chat bubble icon - Trigger a text box where you can type chats in
Nine squares icon - Opens up the player inventory and craft grids
Box being thrown to ground icon - Throws item that the player is holding

A gear icon

This icon situated on the top-right side of screen, it gives access to six more icons:

Binocular icon - Toggles the full viewing range
Eye icon - Toggles the camera view of the player
Three gears icon - Toggles the debug info, profiler graph and sometimes wireframe
Running icon - Toggles fast move (requires "fast" privilege)
Player go through square icon - Toggles noclip (requires "noclip" privilege)
Paper plane icon - Toggles fly mode (requires "fly" privilege)

Four arrow icons

These icons situated on the bottom-left side of screen, the functions are obvious:

Arrow up icon - Move to the front or accelerates
Arrow left icon - Move to the left
Arrow down icon - Move to the back or decelerates
Arrow right icon - Move to the right

A dot and inverted triangle icons

These icons situated on the bottom-right side of screen, the functions are:

The dot - Jump or move up
The inverted triangle - Sneak or move down

Play on Android without using touchscreen

Please make sure your device could actually supports keyboard and mouse, then connect the keyboard and mouse to the device (via USB, OTG-USB or Bluetooth). To ensure Android detecting them correctly, try to move your mouse and a pointer will appear on screen. Try to use arrow keys on keyboard and it will select the apps on home screen or select some menus. You should see the physical mouse and keyboard appears in the "Language & Input" setting of your device.

Run the Minetest app after you connect your keyboard and mouse. You can now play Minetest using the keyboard and mouse. However, the mouse will only act as a finger which means you can't use the mouse buttons of desktop version on Android. Left and right click acts the same way, middle click is not detected. Double click acts as the same as double tap on touchscreen, whereas holding the mouse button acts as the long tap on touchscreen. While the mouse works differently, the keyboard will work the same as desktop version. Refer to the default control keys to know which keys do what.

There is currently no way to split items from stack using keyboard and mouse on Android, you need to use touchscreen for this. Touch stack and hold finger down, move the stack to another slot, tap another finger while keeping first finger on screen. This places a single item from dragged stack into the slot where the first finger is touching. Tap another slot to put remaining stack.