The next minecraft drop: all the news

At the beginning of 2026, Mojang surprises us with the first test versions of the year’s first drop, which can now be tried in the latest snapshot (26.1 Snapshot 2). This snapshot brings multiple redesigns to several baby animals, including the following:

• Baby Cow
• Baby Sheep
• Baby Pig
• Baby Cat
• Baby Ocelot
• Baby Mooshroom
• Baby Wolf
• Baby Chicken
• Baby Rabbit

As a controversial addition in this latest snapshot, they added the ability to craft name tags using basic materials. This removes functionality from several structures where name tags were an exclusive reward. The new name tag recipe consists of one piece of paper and one nugget (iron, gold, or copper).

In addition to these aesthetic changes, technical and performance updates were added to the game:
Default JVM options:

• The game now allocates 4 GB of RAM by default (previously 2 GB).
• Additionally, garbage collection was changed from G1GC to ZGC on compatible devices.

Finally, there are always bug fixes as well as internal changes to the game files. You can find more information here:
Original article: 26.1 Snapshot 2