Tab Friends
by Maynim
With Tab Friends installed, a player's chosen friends are pinned to the top of the tab player list on Fabric servers, where they stay findable on busy servers.
What it does
Tab Friends keeps a personal friends list and moves those players to the top of the player list shown when the tab key is held. Friends appear first, and the rest of the list is sorted automatically. Each friend entry can be highlighted with a colored background, so a friend stands out from other players at a glance. The friends list is saved between sessions, so it is still there after a restart.
Players add and remove friends with commands that start with tabfriend, and the list can be managed without any extra screen. The background color and its transparency are adjustable through a settings screen. With Mod Menu installed, those options are also reachable from the game's own mod menu, which makes the configuration easier to find.
The mod is client-side only. Only the player who installs it sees the sorted list and the highlights, and the server needs nothing. It requires Fabric API and YetAnotherConfigLib (YACL) on Fabric, and is published for 1.21.8 only. The code is not open source, and All rights reserved applies.
Key features
Friends listed first
Friends are placed at the top of the player list, ahead of other players, so they are found without scrolling.
Automatic sorting
The rest of the player list is sorted automatically, which keeps the list readable on large servers.
Colored friend highlights
A background color marks each friend entry, and the default is dark green at 50% transparency, written as 0x80008800.
Friends list through commands
Players add and remove friends with commands that begin with tabfriend, and the list is saved between sessions.
Gallery
Compatibility
Latest build for each game version and loader.
Only full game releases are shown. This mod publishes no snapshot builds.
Requirements
Dependencies declared by the latest file for each loader.
Required 2
Optional 1
How it compares
FriendsNotes is a Fabric client mod for 1.21.1, released under the MIT License. RecentlyConnected is a client-side Fabric mod for 1.21.4 under the GNU General Public License v3.0 only, and is open source. Online Friends is a client-side Fabric mod for 1.21.4 under the Apache License 2.0. Tab Friends targets 1.21.8 only and is not open source.
| Mod | Loaders | Game versions | Environment | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tab Friends | Fabric | 1.21.8 | Client-side only | 2025-11-13 |
| FriendsNotes | Fabric | 1.21.1 | Client-side only | 2026-05-14 |
| RecentlyConnected | Fabric | 1.21.4 | Client-side only | 2024-12-21 |
| Online Friends | Fabric | 1.21.4 | Client-side only | 2026-09-07 |
Questions
Does Tab Friends need Fabric API?
Does the server need Tab Friends installed?
Where are the background color settings?
Which Minecraft versions does Tab Friends support?
In the catalog
Tab Friends is one of 5,392 Social mods on ModsFinder, and one of 4,084 Social mods for Fabric. 17,695 mods support Minecraft 1.21.8.
Similar mods
What the author says
A client-side mod for Minecraft that allows you to add players to a friends list. Friends are displayed first in the server player list. Default: dark green color with 50% transparency (0x80008800)
Official listing
- Modrinth page
- modrinth.com/mod/tab-friends
- Owner
- Maynim
- Published
- 2025-11-12
- Updated on Modrinth
- 2025-11-13
- Facts verified
- 2026-10-15