Minecraft's 'the Nether Update' snuck in Achievement rewards and emotes in the Bedrock Edition

With the many, many things Mojang Studios added in the Nether Update, it's not surprising they sneakily included a brand-new feature at the last minute. With the Nether Update, two new player-focused features have been added, at least for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, that rewards players for accomplishing goals in the game, and gives players a new way to communicate with each other. Achievement rewards and emotes are officially active, and will be continuously added to over time.

Related: All the essential details of the Nether Update, here in a handy cheat sheet

• Achievement rewards. Twenty-eight of Minecraft's numerous Achievements now grant rewards for accomplishing them. Twenty-five of these achievements are character creation items like clothing and accessories. The other three tie into the second secret feature added in the Nether Update.
• Emotes. Players can now express themselves with emotes, or animated motions that you can activate at any time. Every player gets a collection of free emotes to start off with, but you can earn an additional three by completing certain Achievements. On top of that, new premium emotes will start appearing in the Minecraft Marketplace starting July 7, 2020.

This is hardly the most exciting development from the Nether Update, but it's still interesting to see Minecraft evolve and add more player-centric features on top of its incredibly versatile gameplay. I don't know if I'll be incorporating emotes into my everyday playstyle, but at the very least I'm sure to take advantage of the character creation rewards by completing Achievements!

If you're interested, you can check out Mojang Studios' announcement post for all the details.

What do you think of the new features? Will you use emotes, or take advantage of the new rewards? Let us know in the comments below!