Minecraft help

[SmokeWithoutFire]

My DS (11) wants to install Minecraft on his mobile so he can play with friends. Is this something he can do without a subscription? He usually plays java edition on his pc (Linux) but that's solo.

I'm usually fairly au fait with this sort of stuff but I think revising GCSE maths with my DD earlier must have seen me off! I can't make sense of anything I Google, and wondered if there was anyone with direct knowledge.

He'll need to pay for the mobile version (it's around 7 quid), but I think after that they can play together using a free Microsoft Xbox account.

It's called Bedrock Edition if you're googling.

Download it from the play store, it's £6.99 and crossplay is available

Just be aware that the mobile version is bedrock edition. This is compatible with consoles like PlayStation, switch and xbox. He will need a Microsoft account to play with his friends.

According to DS (12), he needs to download minecraft from the App Store which costs money.
It depends whether he wants to play by hosting on his phone and invite his friends to a world or whether he wants to play with his friends on a realm (a realm is a private server hosted by Minecraft) for a subscription fee of £3.49 a month. However if one of his friends already owns a realm he can join that for free.
Realms also mean his friends can play on the world without him being online.
He can play with his friends for free using the first option however this provides no automatic backups so I recommend he takes a backup by copying the world every so often.

Thankyou everyone! Just what I needed to know. Will see if his friend is hosting it...