Sneaking

Sneaking is a gameplay feature that prevents players from falling off of blocks, helps players hide from enemies, among other useful features.

Controls
On any PC system, the control for sneaking defaults to. The player will be sneaking as long as the key is held down. In Bedrock Edition with touch controls, sneaking is toggled by double-tapping the sneak button (the button with an open circle). In Legacy Console Edition and Bedrock Edition with controller, sneaking is toggled by pressing on the right analog stick until it clicks (on a Playstation Vita, simply press down on the directional pad). Certain actions like opening the inventory can cancel sneaking, even if the player is still holding down the key for sneaking.

Effects
While sneaking:


 * Players are prevented from walking off edges if the difference in height between the two surfaces is $5/8$ of a block or higher, which makes sneaking highly useful for building horizontally outwards over empty space.
 * The player can still dismount blocks while sneaking by jumping over the block's edge.
 * If the player destroys the block they are standing on while sneaking, they will still fall down.
 * Players move slower, at a speed of about 1.31m/s.
 * Hostile mobs will not become aware of the player until within 80% of the usual detection range.
 * Eye level moves down $1/8$ of a block, and the character model bends over slightly. This can be viewed using.
 * The player's hitbox height reduces from its usual 1.8 blocks:
 * $$, the height becomes 1.65 blocks, allowing movement through spaces as small as 1.75 (2 - $1/4$) blocks high.
 * $$, the height becomes 1.5 blocks.
 * No footstep sounds occur.
 * In multiplayer, a sneaking player's name tag will be fainter than normal, and invisible to players more than 32 blocks away.
 * Other players in multiplayer will not see a sneaking player's name tag through solid blocks.
 * If players are on a ladder or vine, they do not move down. This gives the impression of holding on to that specific ladder rung or vine. Mining speed is still decreased by a factor of 5.
 * Players may place certain items and blocks on some block entities. For example, placing a hopper on a chest, a torch on a furnace, or redstone on a command block.
 * Players are able to interact with a horse when pressing control while holding the  key.
 * Sneaking will prevent the player from bouncing on slime blocks, making the player take fall damage.
 * Magma blocks do not cause harm.
 * Redstone ore does not light if stepped on by a sneaking player.
 * If the player is submerged in water, sneaking will make them sink faster.

Sneaking does not affect:
 * Jump height: players can still jump up to the same heights, and at the same vertical speed. Horizontal jump speed and distance is decreased, however.
 * Farmland and crops: they will still be trampled when jumped upon.

Trivia

 * In creative mode, if the player holds the sneak button and then double taps the space bar to fly, they jump up and are stuck at the height they jumped up in and stay like that until they release the space bar. However, this isn't a bug because the sneak key is also the key used in flying to lower altitude, so using both keys at the same time purposefully keeps the player still.
 * This does not work in the Legacy Console Edition, as the player will immediately switch to a standing position when they fly.


 * In Bedrock Edition the player uses a sneaking stance when flying downwards. The player will also be able to place blocks on chests, furnaces and other utility blocks in this stance, suggesting the player is actually in a sneaking mode. In Java Edition the player no longer enters sneak mode when flying downwards, but they still don't interact with blocks by right-clicking.


 * $5/8$, the player can bridge out by looking at the air block they are placing on, though it must be adjacent to an existing block. This works even if the player is not sneaking.
 * In Java Edition, the player must travel to the very edge of the block (usually by sneaking) and look backwards to place the next block.