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How to whisper in Minecraft

Careful Whisper.

Communication is key in a game like Minecraft, where it can be all about surviving and building together with others. Some people don’t have access to external communication platforms like Discord or are playing with strangers on various Realms. If that happens to be you, you’ll want to know how to whisper in Minecraft chat.

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How to whisper in Minecraft

Screenshot by Destructoid

You are able to chat anytime and on any platform in Minecraft by pressing the T key on your keyboard on PC to bring up the text chat box or by pressing right on the D-Pad for controller users. This will bring up the chat box, where you are able to type out whatever message you want to send. However, these messages will be public to everyone on the server unless you whisper.

To whisper in Minecraft, you want to start your text message with “/tell.” This will change the message to a private one, but you also have to take an additional step. After that part, you need to put the exact username of the player you are trying to message. Once you do that, you can hit space again in the chat box and type your message to them. If done right, the message will be sent privately to the person in question.

  • Press T on keyboard or right on the D-Pad for controller
  • Type /tell, then the name of the person you wish to whisper to in the following format “/tell SplatoonFan25 message” using the appropriate spaces.
  • Type the message you wish to send and hit the send button to the right of the text box.

Additional ways to private message in Minecraft

Screenshot by Destructoid

While /tell is the universal way of sending someone a whisper message in Minecraft, there are some additional ways to privately message someone; it just depends on the server settings. Some of the other commands you can use include /msg, /whisper, and /w. Like the others, you need to make sure to put the person’s username correctly after the fact for it to work.

In some servers, it is also possible to simplify the process by typing /r and then your message. This is short for “reply,” and it will let you respond privately to the person who last whispered to you. This is a pretty easy way to quickly message someone without having to constantly type in “SplatoonFan25” or whatever their username happens to be—sorry if that is someone’s actual username, by the way.

Finally, if you are in one of the permanent shared servers like Lifeboat or CubeCraft, you can add your friends to your party and then chat in the party chat with them. This keeps it only between those in your party and makes it great for quick whisper-like messages without having to type anything extra or unnecessary, like their username.

Now that you know how to whisper to people, you can hit folks up in secret to ask them for help. That help can range from borrowing a horse to breed another horse, or maybe you recently made a Mace and need a willing friend to test it on.


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Cody Perez
Contributing Writer - Cody has been a huge fan of Destructoid for more than a decade as well as a freelance writer for various publications. Now working for Destructoid, he has the chance to share his passion for Final Fantasy XIV, Pokemon, Call of Duty, and many more games.