# Multiplayer

You can play with friends from your own world, on your local network, or on a server. This page also says plainly what does not work yet: servers that check Minecraft accounts.

## Play with friends from your own world

This needs no server and no account.

1. In your world, open the pause menu and choose **Invite friends**. Horizon opens the world to your network and shows an **invite code**.
2. Send the code to your friends.
3. On their side, your friends choose **Join a friend** (on the game's Multiplayer page, or on the launcher's **Play** page), paste the code and choose **Join**.

There is no Horizon server in the middle. The code holds the host's addresses and a secret key, and the game between you is encrypted with it. A code works for as long as you keep sharing: closing the world or quitting ends it.

**Can your friends reach you?** The pause menu says what the game found:

- On the same network, or over a VPN such as Tailscale or ZeroTier, it just works.
- Over the internet, it asks your router to open the port by itself (UPnP). If the router does not allow it, forward TCP port 25580 to your computer.
- Some internet providers share one address between many homes (CGNAT), and no port can be opened. Use a VPN such as [Tailscale](https://tailscale.com) instead; the code already contains your VPN address.

Guests join with the name their game uses. There is no account check, so only share the code with people you trust.

## Open to LAN

As in vanilla, **Open to LAN** in the pause menu lets people on the same network join your world. They see it in their server list. A vanilla 26.3 client can join a Horizon LAN world, and Horizon can join a vanilla one. LAN worlds are in offline mode.

## Joining a server

The Multiplayer page works like vanilla's: **Add server** saves one, **Direct connect** takes an address, and your servers are listed with their message of the day and ping. Horizon joins vanilla 26.3 servers and Horizon's own.

**Online mode.** Most public servers run in online mode: they check that each player really owns Minecraft by asking Mojang. To pass that check, the game needs a Microsoft account sign-in, and Horizon cannot do that yet. It needs an app registration and an approval from Mojang that the project does not have. So today:

- **Horizon can join servers in offline mode only** (`online-mode=false`): your own, a friend's, or a server on your network or a VPN.
- **It cannot join servers that check accounts.** That is most public servers, and Realms.
- Skins served over https show the default skin unless they were already cached.

Anyone can join an offline server under any name, so run one only on your network or a VPN, or share it with people you trust. [Host a server](/docs/hosting) explains the details.

## Vanilla players on a Horizon server

A vanilla 26.3 client can join a Horizon server, and in online mode it signs in with its own account as on a vanilla server. Secure chat works for those players.