Sneaking

Sneaking is a feature introduced in the 1st Seecret Saturday update on September 18th, 2010 (Alpha 1.1.1). While holding the Shift key, the player enters sneaking mode. Sneaking was originally called crouching; however, the player's hitbox doesn't change from the normal standing height. mobs still notice players in sneak mode, despite that there are no foot step noises.

Sneaking prevents players from falling off ledges, making it primarily useful for building horizontally outwards from high ledges by looking over the lip. However, if Shift is released while beyond the edge of a block, the player will fall down.

On a Macintosh computer, the hotkey can be changed from Shift to CapsLock to sneak without having to hold down a key. On a Windows the sneak hotkey must be held and then ALT must be pressed while still holding it. This will freeze the game, but if ALT is pressed again after the key is released then the sneaking is permanent until the sneak hotkey is pressed (AND released) again. Bringing up the inventory or menu will revert the status to walking, as will pressing the chat hotkey or interacting with a furnace, crafting bench, or dispenser. This method works in both windowed and fullscreen mode. (Note: this applies to other commands too, like walking or jumping.)

Also, if the sneak hotkey is pressed at EXACTLY the same time as the chat hotkey, then the player will be crouching in chat. This is very useful if you want to talk but remain hidden from players, because when chat is activated the mouse is released.

Also, when you are sneaking, you can still jump. This means that you can jump up levels, but if you jump on the edge of a block, you can fall down, effectively negating the effects of sneaking.

Note that players can still fall off slabs, stairs and beds while sneaking, but cannot step up onto these half-blocks.

Effects

 * The character moves slower. Moving diagonally will allow the player to move slightly faster, but not at full speed.
 * The character appears to be bending over.
 * The character bends down one-eighth of a block. This can be viewed using F5.
 * No sound is made when sneaking.
 * Players cannot fall off ledges.
 * Stairs and steps cannot be walked up but can be walked down.
 * Players cannot sneak from Soul Sand and Cacti to any other material at the same level.
 * Crops won't be trampled.
 * The camera angle slightly lowers.
 * Other players in Survival Multiplayer cannot see your name through walls.
 * In SMP your name will be slighty darker than normal.
 * As of Beta 1.4, you will not slide down on ladders.

Bugs

 * If you are sneaking and you exit to the menu and then go back into your map, your character sinks into or falls off of the block you are standing on.
 * If you sneak into a corner to a hole, with enough precision, you will fall.
 * If you press F2 to take a screenshot while sneaking (assuming the sneaking key is left or right shift), Minecraft will attempt to take a huge TGA formatted screeshot (at least 1GB in size), and the Minecraft window will glitch and eventually crash.
 * You can fall off the edge while sneaking if the block you're on is directly next to a lava source block (unknown if it is the same with water)