Simple Voice Chat and Google Drive Backups: What's New in 2.0.2

Anvil-MC 2.0.2 brings two things players have asked for since the first release: proximity voice chat through the Simple Voice Chat mod, and full server backups to your own Google Drive. Backups run automatically when your server stops, sleeps or on a schedule, and any backup can be restored in a few taps, into the same server, another one or a brand-new one.

Simple Voice Chat on an Android server

Simple Voice Chat is the most popular proximity voice mod for Minecraft Java Edition: players hear each other based on where they stand in the world, so a whisper behind a wall stays private and a shout across a valley fades out. Anvil-MC 2.0.2 supports it on Paper, Purpur, Spigot, Fabric, Forge and NeoForge servers.

Voice chat has two halves. The server runs the voice side, and every player who wants to talk also needs the Simple Voice Chat mod installed in their own game. A player without the mod can still join and play, they just will not hear or be heard.

How it works depends on how players connect

Simple Voice Chat does not send audio through the normal Minecraft connection. It opens its own extra port next to the game port, and that is what decides where it works.

• Local network / the same Wi-Fi: voice chat works for everyone, for free. If you open a LAN-hosted server to the public yourself, port forwarding is required.
• Over the tunnel: voice chat needs its own extra port next to the game port, and this costs additional bandwidth. Because of this, a Premium custom IP is required, so please note that voice chat will not function on a free tunnel.

Full server backups to Google Drive

A Minecraft server on a phone lives on one device. A lost phone, a factory reset or a bad mod update used to mean starting over. With 2.0.2 you can connect your Google Drive and back up the entire server: the world, settings and add-on data.

There are three ways a backup gets made:

• By hand, whenever you want one, for example right before a big update.
• Automatically when the server stops or goes to sleep, so the latest progress is always saved. This pairs well with sleep when empty.
• On a schedule while the server runs. Add a backup task in the Automation tab, for example every few hours. Players keep playing during the backup.

A backup limit so your Drive never fills up

Choose how many automatic backups to keep: 3, 5, 10 or 20. When there are more, the oldest one is deleted for you.

Mods and plugins stay light

A backup does not store every mod and plugin jar. It lists them instead, and they are downloaded again from Modrinth when you restore, so a heavily modded server does not eat your Drive storage.

Restoring a backup

Pick any backup and restore it in a few taps, to one of three places:

1. The same server, to roll back a griefed world or a broken update.
2. Another server, to copy a world onto a different setup.
3. A brand-new server, which is also how you move a server to a new phone: install Anvil-MC, connect the same Google account and restore.

Before a restore overwrites anything, your current server is backed up first, so a restore can always be undone.

Managing backups

• See all backups per server, and rename or delete any of them.
• Check how much Google Drive storage you have left.
• Set uploads to Wi-Fi only so backups never use mobile data.
• Uploads pick up where they left off if your connection drops.

Also in 2.0.2

• Settings in the server creator now open and close with smooth animations.
• Using /stop in-game no longer shows a crash message or a "stopped by phone" warning, plus various stability improvements.