Wordpress

WordPress Student Clubs are beginning to take shape as a new way to carry the momentum of WordPress Campus Connect beyond one-time workshops. What starts as an introduction to WordPress and open source is now continuing on campus through student-led groups that create space for learning, peer support, and early community participation. That shift matters because it gives students a more consistent path into the WordPress ecosystem while helping local communities build stronger connections with the next generation of contributors. Students showcasing a website they built during a club session When WordPress Campus Connect workshops first began reaching universities, the goal was straightforward: help students discover WordPress, understand the value of open source, and see that contribution can be part of their learning journey. In many cases, that first introduction created immediate interest. Students who had never worked with WordPress before started asking questions, exploring what the software could do, and showing curiosity about the wider community. That early response also revealed a gap. A workshop could spark interest, but it could not always sustain it on its own. Encouraging students to attend local WordPress meetups helped extend that first connection and, in some cases, brought new energy to existing local communities. Even so, it became clear that campuses needed something more consistent and closer to students’ everyday environment. WordPress Student Clubs emerged from that need. Instead of limiting engagement to a single event, these clubs create an ongoing, student-led presence on campus where students can keep learning, share knowledge with peers, and grow more confident over time. They also offer a practical bridge between first exposure and deeper participation, helping students move from curiosity to contribution through regular activity and community support. Learning What Sustains Participation As WordPress Student Clubs started forming across campuses, the early enthusiasm was encouraging, but sustaining that momentum proved to be one of the first real challenges. Student Club Organizers shared that interest was often strongest at the beginning, especially after a workshop or an introductory session, but turning that interest into regular participation required patience and experimentation. Like many community efforts, the clubs needed time to find a rhythm that worked for the students involved. One of the most common challenges was consistency. Many students were interested in learning WordPress, but regular engagement depended on more than initial curiosity. Organizers found that participation grew more steadily when activities felt approachable and useful, especially when students could learn by doing rather than only listening. Small learning sessions, collaborative exercises, and hands-on activities often made it easier for students to return and take part again. Organizers also noticed that some students were initially hesitant to engage actively. Asking questions, speaking up in a group, or volunteering to help lead a session did not always happen naturally. Building a club meant creating an environment where students felt comfortable enough to participate, try something new, and gradually take ownership of their own learning. Academic schedules added another layer of complexity. Because the clubs are student-led, planning around classes, assignments, and exams required flexibility. Keeping activities regular without overwhelming organizers or participants meant working within the rhythms of campus life. Those early difficulties became part of the learning process and helped shape how the clubs began to operate more effectively. Building Through Small, Consistent Activities As organizers worked through those challenges, certain approaches began to show results. Instead of focusing on large events, many clubs found momentum through simple, repeatable activities that students could join without feeling intimidated. Regular learning sessions, small hands-on workshops, and peer-to-peer discussions helped create an environment that felt both welcoming and practical. A Student club activity in a college led by a student club Organizer Students showcasing websites built during a club session That steady approach mattered. When students could return to familiar formats and see progress from one session to the next, clubs became easier to sustain. Organizers were able to build routines, and participants could join at their own pace. Over time, those small efforts started to strengthen participation more effectively than occasional large events. Student ownership also played an important role. As students began sharing what they had learned, helping their peers, and taking part in running sessions, engagement started to grow more organically. These moments helped shift the clubs from being simply learning spaces to becoming communities in their own right. Students were not only using WordPress in a classroom context. They were also beginning to understand it as part of a collaborative open source project shaped by people who learn together, build together, and support one another. Guidance from the local WordPress community helped reinforce that progress. Although the clubs are student-led, organizers benefited from having experienced community members available as mentors. Mentors helped them think through session structure, activity planning, and the practical challenge of staying motivated while balancing academic responsibilities. That kind of support gave organizers more confidence to experiment and keep building. Mentorship also connected campus activity to the broader WordPress ecosystem. Students were not learning in isolation. Through local community guidance, they were able to see how meetups, contributions, and collaboration all fit into a larger network of people who have been participating in WordPress for years. That connection gave the work happening on campus greater meaning and helped students see a clearer path forward. Early Impact Across Campuses Although WordPress Student Clubs are still in an early stage, signs of impact are already visible. Organizers have shared that more students are showing interest in learning WordPress and in exploring what open source participation can look like in practice. In several cases, students who first joined as learners are now contributing to discussions, helping peers during sessions, and organizing club activities themselves. That shift from passive participation to active involvement is one of the clearest signs of growth. It suggests that the clubs are beginning to create more than awareness. They are creating opportunities for students to build confidence, practice leadership, and develop a stronger sense of connection to the WordPress community. Even at this stage, that kind of change points to the long-term value of sustaining engagement on campus. One encouraging example came during the International Women’s Day celebration in Ajmer, India, where students participated alongside members of the local WordPress community. Organizers noted that the event included 100 female attendees, with around 50% of participants coming from student clubs. For many of those students, it was a first opportunity to take part in a broader community event, meet other contributors, and see how open source communities collaborate in practice. Women’s Day Ajmer 2026 Event, where more than 50% participation from student clubs Experiences like that show how student-led initiatives can extend beyond campus and begin contributing to the wider community. They also create space for new voices to participate. As students move from club sessions into local events, they gain experience not only as learners but also as community members who can help shape what comes next. The clubs are also creating leadership opportunities on campus. Organizers have stepped into new roles by coordinating activities, encouraging participation, and maintaining momentum over time. Those experiences help students build skills that matter both within the WordPress community and beyond it, including communication, organization, and problem-solving. “Being a Student Club Organizer helped me improve my leadership and communication skills.” — Sanjeevni Kumari, WordPress Student Club Organizer, Mahila Engineering College, Ajmer Looking Ahead WordPress Student Clubs are still developing, but the journey so far points to a promising direction. What began as an effort to sustain interest after WordPress Campus Connect is gradually becoming a more durable model for ongoing learning and collaboration on campus. The clubs are helping students stay connected to WordPress beyond a first introduction, while also creating stronger links between educational spaces and local communities. That longer-term potential is one reason this work matters. With regular campus activity and continued mentorship, Student Clubs can help create a stronger foundation for future contributors. They can also help students build confidence before attending local meetups, contributing to community efforts, or participating in events beyond their campuses. “With regular on-campus activities through WordPress Student Clubs, the real impact may become visible over the next couple of years, as a stronger WordPress ecosystem begins to take shape within campuses.” — Anand Upadhyay, Student Club Mentor As more students get involved and take ownership of these spaces, WordPress Student Clubs can continue to open pathways to learning, leadership, and community participation. For campuses, they offer a way to keep the momentum going after Campus Connect. For the broader project, they represent another step toward welcoming more students into the WordPress open source ecosystem. To follow this work and explore how it connects with the wider community, readers can look to WordPress Campus Connect, WordPress Meetups, and other education and community initiatives across WordPress.org. Note: Much of the credit belongs to @webtechpooja (Pooja Derashri) for help in writing this piece. View the full article

WordCamp Asia 2026 brought the global WordPress community to Mumbai, India, from April 9–11, gathering contributors, organizers, sponsors, speakers, and attendees at the Jio World Convention Centre for three days of learning, collaboration, and community. With 2,281 attendees, the event reflected the scale of the WordPress community and the strong turnout throughout the event. The event unfolded across Contributor Day and two conference days, with a program that moved from technical sessions and workshops to hallway conversations, shared meals, and joyful moments of connection across the venue. From first-time attendees to longtime contributors, WordCamp Asia 2026 reflected the breadth of the WordPress ecosystem and the many ways people shaped and sustained it. WordPress is not a company. It is a shared commitment to keeping the web open. Mary Hubbard, Executive Director, WordPress Throughout the event, WordCamp Asia 2026 balanced formal programming with the conversations happening around it. Sessions and workshops set the pace, while morning networking, tea breaks, lunch, the family photo, the sponsor’s raffle, and the after party in Jasmine Hall helped make the event feel welcoming, social, and connected. How WordCamp Asia 2026 Took Shape Bringing together contribution, practical learning, and forward-looking conversation in one shared program. Across Contributor Day and the conference sessions that followed, attendees moved between hands-on work, technical talks, workshops, and broader discussions about AI, education, enterprise, community growth, and the open web. The result was a WordCamp that felt expansive without losing its sense of connection. Different rooms with topics as themes, helping different audiences, and different forms of participation all fed into the same larger picture: a community actively building what comes next for WordPress as a feeling that something bigger was happening: not just a schedule being delivered, but a community showing up for one another and for the future of WordPress. Contributor Day: Building WordPress Together Contributor Day opened WordCamp Asia 2026 with one of the clearest expressions of what makes the project special: people coming together to move WordPress forward by working on it. More than 1,500 participants joined 38 table leads across more than 20 contribution tables, creating a day that was expansive in scale and grounded in real work. For some, it was a return to familiar teams and longtime collaborators. For others, it was the beginning of their contributor journey. The day moved between structured learning and hands-on participation. Alongside contributor sessions, attendees joined workshops, visited the Open Source Library, took part in YouthCamp, and attended The Making of a WordPress Release: Conversations with Past Release Squad Members, a featured panel that added depth and perspective to the work of building and sustaining WordPress. What made Contributor Day stand out was not only the number of people in the room, but the range of ways they could take part. Workshops created space for skill-building. YouthCamp brought younger participants into the experience and widened the event’s reach in a meaningful way. The day felt welcoming, energetic, and full of possibility. By the end, the impact was already visible across teams. Polyglots contributors suggested more than 7,000 strings and reviewed 3,200 of them. Photo contributors uploaded 76 images. The Test team worked on more than 20 tickets, and 55 contributors joined Training. Those numbers told only part of the story, but they pointed to what Contributor Day continued to do so well: turn a large gathering into shared work that strengthened the project in real time. Conference Sessions Take Shape Across the conference days, WordCamp Asia 2026 covered a wide range of topics, from technical development and hands-on workshops to business strategy and the open web. Sessions took place across the Foundation, Growth, and Enterprise tracks, with workshops running alongside the main program. One of the opening sessions was James LePage’s WordPress and AI, which introduced a theme that appeared throughout the conference: how WordPress is responding to changes in AI, publishing, and developer workflows. That topic continued in later sessions focused on AI-driven development, autonomous testing, plugin maintenance, and automation. Later that morning, a fireside chat with Mary Hubbard and Shilpa Shah shifted the focus toward trust, security, and the longer-term questions shaping open source publishing. Coming early in the program, the conversation gave the conference an important center of gravity, pairing technical change with questions of stewardship, resilience, and what people needed from WordPress as the web continued to evolve. Rather than pulling away from the event’s technical momentum, it deepened it, bringing a human perspective to the pace of change and reminding the audience that progress in open source is not only about what gets built, but about how communities guide, challenge, and sustain that work over time. From there, the conference widened into a program that balanced developer-focused talks with sessions on the Interactivity API, the HTML API, AI-driven development workflows, education initiatives, observability, automation, and startup strategy. On the final day, those threads continued through talks on WP translation, community building, WordPress Playground, data engineering, enterprise WordPress, and journalism on the open web. Together, the two conference days made clear that WordCamp Asia 2026 was designed not for one kind of attendee, but for many. Developers, founders, marketers, contributors, organizers, and people finding their place in WordPress for the first time all found something that spoke directly to their work and interests. The breadth of the program was striking, but so was the feeling that these conversations mattered now. Building What Comes Next WordCamp Asia 2026 closed with reflections from Mary Hubbard, following an opening announcement from Chenda Ngak that WordCamp India will join the calendar in 2027 as the fourth flagship WordPress event. Mary’s remarks tied together several threads that had already surfaced throughout the event: India’s long-standing role in the WordPress project, the growth of programs like Campus Connect and WordPress Credits, the energy of YouthCamp, and the significance of WordPress 7.0. One of the clearest ideas in the session was that WordPress is entering a new phase shaped by real-time collaboration, AI infrastructure, and global contributor growth. That framing gave the closing session a strong sense of direction without losing sight of the community work that made it possible. The session then shifted into a panel discussion about the current state of WordPress and where the project is headed next. Peter Wilson and Sergey Biryukov joined Hubbard on stage, while audience questions brought the conversation back to many of the themes that had shaped the event across all three days. Even from afar, Ma.tt Mullenweg remained part of the discussion, following along remotely and sending written responses during the live Q&A. Those questions touched on contributor growth, AI, plugins, local communities, product direction, and the long-term health of the open web. What stood out was how often the answers returned to the same core idea: WordPress continues to grow through open discussion, shared responsibility, and the people who keep showing up to build it together. A Lasting Momentum Over three days in Mumbai, WordCamp Asia 2026 brought together contribution, learning, and community. From Contributor Day through the closing keynote, the event balanced hands-on work with bigger conversations about publishing, technology, education, and the open web. The event also created space for many kinds of participation. Some attendees contributed to Core, Training, Polyglots, Photos, and other teams. Others came for the conference program, workshops, or the chance to reconnect with collaborators and meet new people. Across session rooms, tea breaks, shared meals, sponsor hall conversations, and the after party, the community side of the event remained just as important as the formal program. Thank you to the organizers, volunteers, speakers, sponsors, attendees, and everyone who joined online. WordCamp Asia 2026 was a reminder that WordPress continues to grow through the people who show up to contribute and build together. There is still more to look forward to this year. The community will gather again at WordCamp Europe 2026 in Kraków, Poland from June 4–6, followed by WordCamp US 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona from August 16–19. View the full article

WordCamp Asia 2026 will be available to watch live across three days of streaming, making it easy for the global WordPress community to follow along from anywhere. This year’s live streamed programming begins with a special Contributor Day broadcast, followed by two full conference days of presentations from across the WordPress community. This post gathers each official stream in one place so you can quickly find the right broadcast for each day. Bookmark this page and return throughout the event to watch live. Day One: The Making of a WordPress Release Go behind the scenes of a WordPress release in this special Contributor Day live stream from WordCamp Asia 2026. Past release squad members come together to share stories, reflect on their experience, and talk about what it takes to bring a WordPress release to life. The Panel will go live at 4:30 am UTC. Day Two: Conference Livestreams Watch the second day of WordCamp Asia 2026 live for a full day of presentations and sessions. beginning at 4:00 am UTC, including a Fireside chat with Mary Hubbard, which will begin at 5:00 am UTC over on the Growth Stream. Foundation Growth Enterprise Day Three: Conference Livestreams Watch the third day and final day of WordCamp Asia 2026 live, beginning at 4:00 am UTC for another full day of presentations from across the community. Don’t forget to watch Ma.tt Mullenweg give the final keynote, which will begin on the Growth stream at 10:00 am UTC. Foundation Growth Enterprise You can also explore the full schedule to see what is coming up across the event and plan your viewing. However you join, we hope you will follow along and be part of WordCamp Asia 2026. View the full article

April 9-11, 2026 | Jio World Convention Centre, Mumbai, India WordCamp Asia 2026 brings the WordPress community to Mumbai, India, from April 9 to 11, with a schedule shaped around artificial intelligence, enterprise WordPress, developer workflows, product strategy, and open source collaboration. For attendees planning their time, the program offers a useful view of the ideas, tools, and practical challenges shaping WordPress today. Get Your Event Pass WC Asia Schedule About WordCamp Asia Keynotes to Set the Stage The keynote sessions at WordCamp Asia 2026 help frame some of the biggest conversations at this year’s event. Ma.tt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress and CEO of Automattic, is expected to speak about the future of the open web and the ever-evolving role that WordPress plays. Mary Hubbard, Executive Director of WordPress, will also join a fireside chat moderated by Shilpa Shah, focusing on leadership, education initiatives, artificial intelligence, and community growth. Together, they offer an early view of the themes and discussions unfolding across WordPress in 2026. AI, Automation, and the Future of WordPress Artificial intelligence is one of the clearest threads running through the program. Sessions from Fellyph Cintra, Fumiki Takahashi, and Nirav Mehta examine how AI is already influencing WordPress through Core discussions, testing workflows, plugin development, and day-to-day implementation. That same theme continues in sessions on marketing and content strategy, including Adeline Dahal’s work on structuring WordPress content to make it more machine-readable. This cross-section of presentations shows how automation is moving from concept to practice. From autonomous testing with WordPress Playground to AI-supported development workflows, these sessions highlight applicable tools and skills that teams can start using right away, not just concepts. For attendees interested in where WordPress is heading, this is one of the strongest themes across the event. Enterprise WordPress and Scalability Enterprise sessions take that discussion further by focusing on scale, architecture, and operational complexity. Rahul Bansal, James Giroux, Anirban Mukherji, and Abid Murshed are among the speakers exploring how WordPress supports larger organizations, more complex commerce systems, and demanding digital environments. Their sessions look at growth, implementation, and the kinds of decisions that matter when WordPress is supporting business-critical work. Other talks in this track focus on the realities of enterprise operations, including migration risk, observability, and long-term performance. Together, they show how WordPress continues to adapt to larger systems and more complex digital ecosystems without losing the flexibility that makes it widely used in the first place. Developer Experience and Modern Practices The developer track stays grounded in both Core tools and everyday engineering practice. Ryan Welcher will cover the Interactivity API, Jonathan Desrosiers will look at automation in open source, and Takayuki Miyoshi will introduce a schema-sharing approach to form management. These sessions point to a broader shift toward building WordPress systems that are more dynamic, maintainable, and easier to scale over time. These more technical presentations also include sessions on the WordPress HTML API, Content Security Policy, open source data pipelines, and evolving plugin standards. Rather than focusing on a single type of builder, this part of the schedule addresses developers working across infrastructure, security, front-end experiences, and long-term platform health. Community, Education, and Open Source The schedule also makes space for the people and ideas that support WordPress beyond engineering alone. A panel featuring Anand Upadhyay and Maciej Pilarski, moderated by Destiny Kanno, looks at education initiatives and student pathways into open source. Kazuko Kaneuchi will reflect on the story of Wapuu and the culture of contribution around WordPress. At the same time, Kotaro Kitamura and Chiharu Nagatomi will share how WordPress and its community shaped their professional journeys. That wider perspective continues in sessions on product thinking, marketing, career growth, and business strategy. Speakers, including Nabin Jaiswal, Himani Kankaria, Julian Song, Karishma Sundaram, Sandeep Kelvadi, Aviral Mittal, Anh Tran, and Anna Hurko, explore how WordPress works and connects with decision-making, discoverability, professional development, and organizational growth. Taken together, these sessions reflect one of WordPress’s long-standing strengths: its ability to connect software, learning, and community in the same space. Hands-on Workshops Hands-on workshops round out the schedule, offering practical sessions for attendees who want to move from ideas to implementation. They include: From On-Demand to Cloud: Automate WordPress Installations Like a Pro AI + MCP to build, manage, and automate WordPress end-to-end Building AI Agents with self-editing memory Building Better WordPress Experiences with AI-Driven Development Workflows Explore the full schedule to plan your sessions, and get your event pass to join WordCamp Asia 2026 in Mumbai. Mumbai is calling. See you at WordCamp Asia 2026! Note: Much of the credit belongs to @webtechpooja (Pooja Derashri) for help in writing this piece. View the full article

The second Release Candidate (“RC2”) for WordPress 7.0 is ready for download and testing! This version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it’s recommended that you evaluate RC2 on a test server and site. Reaching this phase of the release cycle is an important milestone. While release candidates are considered ready for release, testing remains crucial to ensure that everything in WordPress 7.0 is the best it can be. You can test WordPress 7.0 RC2 in four ways: PluginInstall and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream.)Direct DownloadDownload the RC2 version (zip) and install it on a WordPress website.Command LineUse this WP-CLI command: wp core update --version=7.0-rc2WordPress PlaygroundUse the WordPress Playground instance to test the software directly in your browser. No setup required – just click and go! The scheduled final release date for WordPress 7.0 is April 9, 2026. The full release schedule can be found here. Your help testing Beta and RC versions is vital to making this release as stable and powerful as possible. Thank you to everyone who helps with testing! Please continue checking the Make WordPress Core blog for 7.0-related posts in the coming weeks for more information. What’s in WordPress 7.0 RC2? What’s new in WordPress 7.0? Check out the Beta 1 announcement and 7.0 Developer Notes for details and highlights. For technical information related to issues addressed since RC1, you can browse the following links: GitHub commits since March 24, 2026 Closed Trac tickets since March 24, 2026 How you can contribute WordPress is open source software made possible by a passionate community of people collaborating on and contributing to its development. The resources below outline various ways you can help the world’s most popular open source web platform, regardless of your technical expertise. Get involved in testing Testing for issues is crucial to the development of any software. It’s also a meaningful way for anyone to contribute. Your help testing the WordPress 7.0 RC1 version is key to ensuring that the final release is the best it can be. While testing the upgrade process is essential, trying out new features is equally important. This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 7.0. For those new to testing, follow this general testing guide for more details on getting set up. What else to test: Real Time Collaboration Pattern Editing and content-only Interactivity If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs. Curious about testing releases in general? Follow along with the testing initiatives in Make Core and join the #core-test channel on Making WordPress Slack. Test on your hosting platforms Web hosts provide vital infrastructure for supporting WordPress and its users. Testing on hosting systems helps inform the development process while ensuring that WordPress and hosting platforms are fully compatible, free of errors, optimized for the best possible user experience, and that updates roll out to customer sites without issue. Want to test WordPress on your hosting system? Get started with configuring distributed hosting tests here. Update your theme or plugin For plugin and theme authors, your products play an integral role in extending the functionality and value of WordPress for all users. Thanks for continuing to test your themes and plugins with the WordPress 7.0 beta releases. If you haven’t yet, make sure to conclude your testing and update the “Tested up to” version in your plugin’s readme file to 7.0. If you find compatibility issues, please post detailed information to the support forum. Help translate WordPress Do you speak a language other than English? ¿Español? Français? Русский? 日本語? हिन्दी? বাংলা? मराठी? ಕನ್ನಡ? You can help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages. This release milestone (RC2) also marks the hard string freeze point of the 7.0 release cycle. An RC2 haiku Once just a dream, RC2 flows like a stream with seven-oh gleam. Props to @amykamala @annezazu for proofreading and review. View the full article

When WP Engine acquired WPackagist on March 12, the WordPress developer community faced a familiar question: what happens when critical open source infrastructure ends up under corporate control? The community already had an answer in progress. Four days later, WP Packages (formerly WP Composer) launched as a fully independent, community-funded alternative, with some neat additional features. Built by Ben Words from Roots, the team behind Bedrock, Sage, and Trellis, WP Packages is a new open source Composer repository for WordPress plugins and themes. Composer is PHP’s dependency manager, and it is how many professional WordPress developers install and update plugins and themes in their projects. Every free plugin and theme in the WordPress.org directory is available through WP Packages. Migrating from WPackagist can be done via a single script or a few terminal commands. What Happened and Why It Matters WPackagist was created in 2013 by Outlandish, a UK-based digital cooperative, and it served the WordPress Composer ecosystem for over a decade. In its later years the project suffered from deferred maintenance, slow update cycles, and little to no community input. When WP Engine announced the acquisition, developers raised immediate concerns about a private-equity-backed corporation controlling infrastructure this foundational to the WordPress developer workflow. WP Engine immediately updated the Composer info field to display a “WPackagist is now maintained by WP Engine” notice in every developer’s terminal. A small thing, but telling. That’s how corporate ownership changes the relationship between a tool and its users. And it only took less than 24h for this to pop up on every composer run: "Info from https://t.co/1EEb4PZ9N2: WPackagist is now maintained by WP Engine. Learn more at https://t.co/89b2hBWxd9" Which I'm sure is a permanent message that will just shift to marketing. Prove me wrong https://t.co/HdcuQPkUqV — Jonathan de Jong (@jonathan_dejong) March 13, 2026 Ben had already started building a WPackagist replacement last August, long before the acquisition made headlines. When WP Engine’s deal landed, he accelerated the launch, going live on March 16 with a fully open source repository on GitHub. Open source repo ≠ transparent system. WP Packages makes everything public, including infrastructure and build process. – Ben Word on X It’s also just a better tool. WP Composer supports Composer v2’s metadata-url protocol, which lets Composer fetch metadata only for the packages a project actually needs. WPackagist still relies on the older provider-includes approach, forcing Composer to download large index files before resolving dependencies. Cold dependency resolves on WP Composer are roughly 17x faster: 0.7 seconds for 10 plugins compared to 12.3 seconds on WPackagist. WP Composer also uses CDN caching with public cache headers and serves immutable, content-addressed per-package files. Package naming is cleaner (wp-plugin/ and wp-theme/ instead of wpackagist-plugin/ and wpackagist-theme/), metadata includes plugin and theme authors, descriptions, and homepage URLs that WPackagist has been missing for years, and updates sync every five minutes rather than WPackagist’s roughly 90-minute cycle. How to Switch Switching from WPackagist to WP Packages requires just a few terminal commands. Remove your existing WPackagist packages: composer remove wpackagist-theme/twentytwentyfive Remove the WPackagist repository and add WP Packages: composer config --unset repositories.wpackagist && composer config repositories.wp-composer composer https://repo.wp-packages.org Require packages with the new naming: composer require wp-theme/twentytwentyfive Alternatively, use the migration script to automatically update your composer.json: curl -sO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/roots/wp-packages/main/scripts/migrate-from-wpackagist.sh && bash migrate-from-wpackagist.sh Roots also provides a WP Packages Changelog Action for GitHub workflows that tracks dependency updates using the new naming format. Projects using Bedrock already ship with WP Packages configured out of the box. Open Source Wins The entire WP Packages project is public. The application code, documentation, and even the full Ansible deployment configuration are available on GitHub. Anyone can fork the repository and run their own WordPress Composer registry. Ben has also committed publicly that WP Packages will never use the Composer info field to push messages, ads, or upsells into developer terminals. That kind of restraint is easier to promise when a project answers to its community rather than to a corporate parent. WP Packages is funded through GitHub Sponsors. Current sponsors include Carrot, Kinsta, WordPress.com, and Itineris. The WordPress ecosystem has always been at its strongest when the community builds the tools it needs in the open. Ben saw a gap forming months before anyone else was paying attention, built something better than what existed, and released it for everyone. No acquisition required. No boardroom decisions about availability or pricing. Just developers solving a problem for other developers and sharing the result. Open source wins. View the full article

The first Release Candidate (“RC1”) for WordPress 7.0 is ready for download and testing! This version of the WordPress software is still under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it’s recommended to evaluate RC1 on a test server and site. WordPress 7.0 RC1 can be tested using any of the following methods: PluginInstall and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream.)Direct DownloadDownload the RC1 version (zip) and install it on a WordPress website.Command LineUse this WP-CLI command: wp core update --version=7.0-RC1WordPress PlaygroundUse the WordPress Playground instance to test the software directly in your browser. No setup required – just click and go! The scheduled final release date for WordPress 7.0 is April 9, 2026. The full release schedule can be found here. Your help testing Beta and RC versions is vital to making this release as stable and powerful as possible. Thank you to everyone who helps with testing! Please continue checking the Make WordPress Core blog for 7.0-related posts in the coming weeks for more information. What’s in WordPress 7.0 RC1? What’s new in WordPress 7.0? Check out the Beta 1 announcement and WordPress 7.0 Developer Notes for details and highlights. RC1 contains more than 134 updates and fixes since the Beta 5 release. You can browse the technical details for all issues addressed since Beta 5 using these links: GitHub commits since March 12, 2026 Closed Trac tickets since March 12, 2026 New Features since Beta 1 The release squad in conjunction with project leadership identified additional features that were not ready for beta 1 but are included in RC1 as supporting requirements for flagship features of the release. AI Connectors Screen – A new admin screen for connecting AI providers to your site and an API for registering additional ones. The Command Palette is now available via a ⌘K or Ctrl+K shortcut in the admin bar. Want to look deeper into the details and technical notes for this release? These tickets and pull requests are just some of the latest updates: #GB-76700: Client Side Media as plugin only #GB-76722: Add support for non-AI providers on Connector’s Screen #GB-76736: New activation hook to enable RTC by default #64904: WP_ALLOW_COLLABORATION constant for RTC #GB-76704: Increased polling intervals for RTC #GB-76643: Real Time Collaboration is opt-in by default #GB-76460: Toggle to turn RTC session notifications on/off #62046: Update PHP AI Client package to 1.3.1 #GB-76550: Revisions: Show changed block attributes in sidebar #62067: Single config option to disable all LLM related features #63697: OPCache added to Site Health > Info > Server The final release is on track for April 9, 2026. As always, a successful release depends on your confirmation during testing. So please download and test! How you can contribute WordPress is open source software made possible by a passionate community of people collaborating on and contributing to its development. The resources below outline various ways you can help the world’s most popular open source web platform, regardless of your technical expertise. Help test this release Testing for issues is crucial to the development of any software. It’s also a meaningful way for anyone to contribute. Your help testing the WordPress 7.0 RC1 version is key to ensuring that the final release is the best it can be. While testing the upgrade process is essential, trying out new features is equally important. This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 7.0. What to test: Real Time Collaboration Pattern Editing and content-only Interactivity If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or directly to Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs. Test on your hosting platforms Hosting systems provide vital infrastructure for supporting WordPress and its users. Testing on hosting infrastructure ensures that WordPress and hosting systems are fully compatible, free of errors, optimized for the best possible user experience, and that updates roll out to customer sites without issue. Thank you to all web hosts who test WordPress! Want to set up testing on your hosting system? Get started with configuring distributed hosting tests here. Update your theme or plugin For plugin and theme authors, your products play an integral role in extending the functionality and value of WordPress for all users. Thanks for continuing to test your themes and plugins with the WordPress 7.0 beta releases. With RC1, you’ll want to conclude your testing and update the “Tested up to” version in your plugin’s readme file to 7.0. If you find compatibility issues, please post detailed information to the support forum. Curious about testing releases in general? Follow along with the testing initiatives and join the #core-test channel on Making WordPress Slack. Help translate WordPress Do you speak a language other than English? ¿Español? Français? Русский? 日本語? हिन्दी? বাংলা? मराठी? ಕನ್ನಡ? You can help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages. This release milestone (RC1) marks the hard string freeze point of the 7.0 release cycle. However, strings will not be available for translation until RC2 later this week. An RC1 haiku RC1 arrives with momentum, sped up time and jazz on the mind. Props to @4thhubbard, @desrosj, @jeffpaul, @chaion07, @audrasjb, @jorbin for collaboration and review. View the full article

WordPress 7.0 Beta 5 is ready for download and testing! This version of the WordPress software is still under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it’s recommended to test Beta 5 on a test server and site.WordPress 7.0 Beta 5 can be tested using any of the following methods: PluginInstall and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream.)Direct DownloadDownload the Beta 5 version (zip) and install it on a WordPress website.Command LineUse this WP-CLI command: wp core update --version=7.0-beta5WordPress PlaygroundUse the WordPress Playground instance to test the software directly in your browser. No setup is required – just click and go! The scheduled final release date for WordPress 7.0 is still April 9, 2026. The full release schedule can be found here. Your help testing Beta and RC versions is vital to making this release as stable and powerful as possible. Thank you to everyone who helps with testing! Please continue checking the Make WordPress Core blog for 7.0-related posts in the coming weeks for more information. What’s new in WordPress 7.0? Check out the Beta 1, Beta 2, and Beta 3 announcements for details and highlights. How to test this release Your help testing the WordPress 7.0 Beta 5 version is key to ensuring everything in the release is the best it can be. While testing the upgrade process is essential, trying out new features is equally important. This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 7.0. If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs.Curious about testing releases in general? Follow along with the testing initiatives in Make Core and join the #core-test channel on Making WordPress Slack. Beta 5 updates and highlights WordPress 7.0 Beta 5 contains more than 101 updates and fixes since the Beta 3 release. Each beta cycle focuses on bug fixes, and more are on the way with your help through testing. You can browse the technical details for all issues addressed since Beta 3 using these links: GitHub commits since March 5, 2026 Closed Trac tickets since March 5, 2026 Issues addressed since Beta 4: GitHub commits since March 10, 2026 Closed Trac tickets since March 10, 2026 WordPress 7.0 Beta 5 contains a new feature! Instantly access all the tools you need with a single click using the new Command Palette shortcut in the Omnibar! In 7.0 Beta 5, logged-in editors will see a field with a ⌘K or Ctrl+K symbol in the upper admin bar that unfurls the command palette when clicked. The new command palette entry point streamlines navigation and customization, giving you full control from anywhere on your site – whether you’re editing, designing or just browsing plugins. A Beta 5 haiku A smooth melody Beta 5 plays on its strings. Seven brings good things. Props to @amykamala, @annezazu and @4thhubbard for proofreading and review. View the full article

WordPress 6.9.4 is now available! WordPress 6.9.2 and WordPress 6.9.3 were released yesterday, addressing 10 security issues and a bug that affected template file loading on a limited number of sites. The WordPress Security Team has discovered that not all of the security fixes were fully applied, therefore 6.9.4 has been released containing the necessary additional fixes. Because this is a security release, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately. You can download WordPress 6.9.4 from WordPress.org, or visit your WordPress Dashboard, click “Updates”, and then click “Update Now”. If you have sites that support automatic background updates, the update process will begin automatically. For more information on WordPress 6.9.4, please visit the version page on the HelpHub site. Security updates included in this release The security team would like to thank the contributors who reported and investigated this issue, in particular Thomas Kräftner for his responsible disclosure. The security issues that are resolved in 6.9.4 are: A PclZip path traversal issue reported independently by Francesco Carlucci and kaminuma An authorization bypass on the Notes feature reported by kaminuma An XXE in the external getID3 library reported by Youssef Achtatal View the full article

For nearly two decades, WordPress has been known for a simple, powerful idea: that anyone should be able to get online and start creating with minimal friction. The famous five-minute install captured that spirit for an earlier era of the web. Today, we’re introducing my.WordPress.net, a new take on that idea designed for a new generation of creators. With my.WordPress.net, WordPress runs entirely and persistently in your browser. There’s no sign-up, no hosting plan, and no domain decision standing between you and getting started. Built on WordPress Playground, my.WordPress.net takes the same technology that powers instant WordPress demos and turns it into something permanent and personal. This isn’t a temporary environment meant to be discarded. It’s a WordPress that stays with you. New Ways to WordPress When you open my.WordPress.net, you’re placed directly into a complete WordPress environment that runs entirely in your browser. What makes this approach meaningful is not just where WordPress runs, but how it changes the relationship between people and the software itself. By removing the need to sign up or make early decisions about hosting and visibility, my.WordPress.net reframes WordPress as a space you can enter and work within, rather than a service you have to configure before you begin. “This takes WordPress from being framed as something that is democratizing publishing to democratizing digital sovereignty.” – Alex Kirk Seen through that lens, my.WordPress.net is not just about convenience. As you don’t need to choose a hosting provider, your WordPress belongs entirely to you. In a publishing environment, you’d briefly interact with WordPress as you prepare your next post. In a personal setting, it becomes a place you shape and return to. That change unlocks new ways of thinking about what WordPress can be. Permanently and Privately Yours Because sites on my.WordPress.net are private by default and not accessible from the public internet, they don’t behave like traditional websites. They aren’t optimized for traffic, discovery, or presentation, and they don’t need to be. Instead, WordPress becomes a personal environment where ideas can exist before they are ready to be shared, or where they may never be shared at all. This changes how WordPress can be used day to day. It becomes a place to think, to draft, to organize, and to experiment without pressure, whether that means writing privately, collecting research, or building small tools for personal use. Learning also fits naturally into this model, since people can explore plugins, themes, and features inside a real WordPress environment where mistakes are expected and recoverable. This turns WordPress into a personal workspace. It becomes a place for thinking, learning, prototyping, and tinkering, where exploration matters more than outcomes. In that role, WordPress shifts from being something you prepare for others to visit into something you actively work inside, adapting to how you want to create and learn over time. Sparking Creativity with Apps To make these ideas concrete, my.WordPress.net includes an App Catalog with pre-configured experiences designed specifically for personal use, built with WordPress plugins. These examples highlight how WordPress can function when it’s private, persistent, and easy to experiment with. Each app installs with a single click and configures itself automatically. Personal CRM A private relationship manager designed to help you stay in touch with people who matter to you. Contacts can be grouped, enriched with personal details, and paired with reminders to reconnect. In the demo, this extends to analyzing communication patterns using imported chat data, all stored locally inside WordPress. Personal RSS Reader Using the Friends plugin, WordPress becomes a quiet, personal feed reader. Instead of relying on external platforms, you can follow sites and creators inside your own WordPress and read at your own pace, free from algorithms or engagement pressure. AI Workspace and Knowledge Base Because my.WordPress.net is powered by WordPress Playground, an AI assistant can safely modify it, empowering you to customize beyond what you’re used to. Ask it to modify a plugin to your liking, or create an entirely new one, featuring your desired block. Ask it about the data you have stored in your WordPress. The assistant remembers what it touches and makes it easy to share your changes with others. Over time, WordPress itself can become your personal knowledge base that the AI understands and works with. Zero Barriers my.WordPress.net lowers the barrier to getting started with WordPress to almost nothing. It offers a fast, commitment-free way to explore, learn, and build, whether the result is a long-term personal project or something that eventually moves elsewhere. In that sense, it updates the spirit of the five-minute install for a browser-first web. What you should know Storage starts at roughly 100 MB The first launch takes a little longer while WordPress downloads and initializes All data stays in your browser and is not uploaded anywhere Each device has its own separate installation Backups should be downloaded regularly Create and explore WordPress has always grown through experimentation. People trying things, breaking things, and discovering new ways to use the platform have shaped what WordPress is today. my.WordPress.net continues that tradition by making experimentation easier and more personal. It’s an invitation to create without pressure, to explore ideas that may never be published, and to use WordPress in ways that fit your life. Start exploring at my.WordPress.net my.WordPress.net is built on WordPress Playground technology. Learn more at WordPress.org/playground or join the conversation in the #meta-playground channel on WordPress Slack. View the full article

WordPress 6.9.2 was released earlier today and addressed 10 security issues. A few users have subsequently reported an issue where the front end of their site was appearing blank after updating to 6.9.2. The issue has been narrowed down to some themes using an unusual approach to loading template files via “stringable objects” instead of primitive strings for file paths. Although this is is not an officially supported approach to loading template files in WordPress (the template_include filter only accepts a string), it nevertheless caused some sites to break. As a result, the Security Team has decided to address this in a fast follow 6.9.3 release. As always, it is recommended that you update your sites to the latest version of WordPress immediately. This ensures your site is protected by all available security fixes in 6.9.2 and that you will not be affected by the bug fixed in 6.9.3. Many thanks to those who reported the issue, assisted in narrowing down the problem, and helped with the fix. You can download WordPress 6.9.3 from WordPress.org, or visit your WordPress Dashboard, click “Updates”, and then click “Update Now”. If you have sites that support automatic background updates, the update process will begin shortly. You don’t have to do a thing! For more information on WordPress 6.9.3, please visit the version page on the HelpHub site. WordPress 7.0 beta 4 The next major release of WordPress will be version 7.0, which is planned for April 9, 2026. The Security Team has decided to package a new beta release (7.0 beta 4) to keep everyone protected from the patched vulnerabilities, including the dedicated members of the community focusing their time and effort on testing the upcoming release. This will be an additional beta release in the 7.0 release cycle. The schedule will remain the same going forward, but with five total beta releases instead of the previously planned four. The next 7.0 beta release is still scheduled for Thursday, March 12th. This beta version of the WordPress software is still under development. Please do not install, run, or test WordPress 7.0 beta versions on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, you should evaluate Beta 4 on a test server and site. Beta 4 updates and highlights WordPress 7.0 Beta 4 contains the ten security patches shipped in WordPress 6.9.2, and more than 49 updates and fixes since the Beta 3 release, including 14 in the Editor and 35 in Core. Each beta cycle focuses on bug fixes. More are on the way, thanks to your help with testing. You can browse the technical details for all issues addressed since Beta 3 at these links: GitHub commits for 7.0 since March 5, 2026 Closed Trac tickets for 7.0 since March 5, 2026 As always, a successful release depends on your confirmation during testing. So please download and test! Props @peterwilson, @desrosj, @marybaum, @amykamala for peer reviewing. View the full article

WordPress 6.9.2 is now available! This is a security release that features several fixes. Because this is a security release, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately. You can download WordPress 6.9.2 from WordPress.org, or visit your WordPress Dashboard, click “Updates”, and then click “Update Now”. If you have sites that support automatic background updates, the update process will begin automatically. The next major release will be version 7.0, which is planned for April 9th, 2026. For more information on WordPress 6.9.2, please visit the version page on the HelpHub site. Security updates included in this release The security team would like to thank the following people for responsibly reporting vulnerabilities, and allowing them to be fixed in this release: A Blind SSRF issue reported by sibwtf, and subsequently by several other researchers while the fix was being worked on A PoP-chain weakness in the HTML API and Block Registry reported by Phat RiO A regex DoS weakness in numeric character references reported by Dennis Snell of the WordPress Security Team A stored XSS in nav menus reported by Phill Savage An AJAX query-attachments authorization bypass reported by Vitaly Simonovich A stored XSS via the data-wp-bind directive reported by kaminuma An XSS that allows overridding client-side templates in the admin area reported by Asaf Mozes A PclZip path traversal issue reported independently by Francesco Carlucci and kaminuma An authorization bypass on the Notes feature reported by kaminuma An XXE in the external getID3 library reported by Youssef Achtatal The WordPress security team have worked with the maintainer of the external getID3 library, James Heinrich, to coordinate a fix to getID3. A new version of getID3 is available here. As a courtesy, these fixes are being backported, where necessary, to all branches eligible to receive security fixes (currently through 4.7). As a reminder, only the most recent version of WordPress is actively supported. The backports are in progress and will ship as they become ready. Thank you to these WordPress contributors This release was led by John Blackbourn. In addition to the security researchers mentioned above, WordPress 6.9.2 would not have been possible without the contributions of the following people: Dennis Snell, Alex Concha, Jon Surrell, Isabel Brison, Peter Wilson, Jonathan Desrosiers, Jb Audras, Luis Herranz, Aaron Jorbin, Weston Ruter, and Dominik Schilling. View the full article

WordPress 7.0 Beta 3 is available for download and testing! This beta version of the WordPress software is still under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, you should evaluate Beta 3 on a test server and site.WordPress 7.0 Beta 3 can be tested using any of the following methods: PluginInstall and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream.)Direct DownloadDownload the Beta 3 version (zip) and install it on a WordPress website.Command LineUse this WP-CLI command: wp core update --version=7.0-beta3WordPress PlaygroundUse the WordPress Playground instance to test the software directly in your browser. No setup is required – just click and go! The scheduled final release date for WordPress 7.0 is April 9, 2026. The full release schedule can be found here. Your help testing Beta and RC versions is vital to making this release as stable and powerful as possible. Please continue checking the Make WordPress Core blog for 7.0-related posts in the coming weeks for more information. Thank you to everyone who is contributing with testing! Catch up on what’s new in WordPress 7.0: Read the Beta 2 announcement for details and highlights. How to test this release Your help testing the WordPress 7.0 Beta 3 version is key to ensuring everything in the release is the best it can be. While testing the upgrade process is essential, trying out new features is equally important. This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 7.0. If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs.Curious about testing releases in general? Follow along with the testing initiatives in Make Core and join the #core-test channel on Making WordPress Slack. Beta 3 updates and highlights WordPress 7.0 Beta 3 contains more than 148 updates and fixes since the Beta 2 release, including 70 in the Editor and 78 in Core. Each beta cycle focuses on bug fixes, and more are on the way with your help through testing. You can browse the technical details for all issues addressed since Beta 2 using these links: GitHub commits for 7.0 since February 26, 2026 Closed Trac tickets for 7.0 since February 26, 2026 Tapping into the power of AI is even easier in Beta 3! The WP AI Client Connectors screen now dynamically registers providers from the WP AI Client registry, in addition to the 3 default providers, giving users more flexibility and command over AI integrations. A Beta 3 haiku Through sun set and rise, Beta 3 takes off and flies. Seven soon arrives. Props to @annezazu, @jeffpaul, @chaion07, @audrasjb and @valentingrenier for proofreading and review. View the full article

WordPress 7.0 Beta 2 is now ready for testing! This beta version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, you should evaluate Beta 2 on a test server and site. You can test WordPress 7.0 Beta 2 in any of the following ways: PluginInstall and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream.)Direct DownloadDownload the Beta 2 version (zip) and install it on a WordPress website.Command LineUse this WP-CLI command: wp core update --version=7.0-beta2WordPress PlaygroundUse the WordPress Playground instance to test the software directly in your browser. No setup required – just click and go! The scheduled final release date for WordPress 7.0 is April 9, 2026. The full release schedule can be found here. Your help testing Beta and RC versions is vital to making this release as stable and powerful as possible. Make sure to check the Make WordPress Core blog for 7.0-related posts in the coming weeks for more information. Thank you to everyone who contributes by testing! Catch up on what’s new in WordPress 7.0: Read the Beta 1 announcement for details and highlights. How to test this release Your help testing WordPress 7.0 Beta 2 is key to ensuring everything in the release is the best it can be. While testing the upgrade process is essential, trying out new features is equally important. This guide on what to test in WordPress 7.0 will walk you through testing features in WordPress 7.0. If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs. Curious about testing releases in general? Follow along with the testing initiatives in Make Core and join the #core-test channel on Making WordPress Slack. Beta 2 updates and highlights WordPress 7.0 Beta 2 contains more than 70 updates and fixes across the Editor and Core since the Beta 1 release. Each beta cycle focuses on bug fixes; and more are on the way with your help through testing. You can browse the technical details for all issues addressed since Beta 1 using these links: GitHub commits for 7.0 since February 20, 2026 Closed Trac tickets for 7.0 since February 20, 2026 Beta 2 also contains a new feature! AI provider management is more intuitive in 7.0 Beta 2 with a new Connectors UI dashboard page. WordPress users can now manage external AI connections in a central place in wp-admin, under Settings > Connectors. The new UI enables users to add, delete, and update external connections. It is powered by an extensible, route-based architecture that allows plugins and themes to hook into the page and expand its functionality. The new Connectors page builds on PHP-based script and menu infrastructure, and adds route components powered by @wordpress/components and @wordpress/admin-ui. A new connections-wp-admin-init hook and registration APIs allow plugins to integrate cleanly. This makes managing external connections easier while giving developers a clearer path to extend the experience. Heads up, block authors! WordPress 7.0 enforces the iframed editor for classic themes when all blocks use Block API version 3. Upgrade your blocks to version 3 to ensure compatibility. More details on Iframed Editor Changes in WordPress 7.0 here. Gutenberg 22.6, released on February 25th, will also be enforced in WordPress 7.0. Here are more details on What’s new in Gutenberg 22.6. A Beta 2 haiku New, and fresh as dew Crafted and refined for you: Beta 2 breaks through. Props to @4thhubbard, @annezazu, @audrasjb, @mukesh27, and @chaion07 for collaboration, proofreading and review. View the full article

WordPress 7.0 Beta 1 is ready for download and testing! This beta release is intended for testing and development only. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, use a test environment or local site to explore the new features. How to Test WordPress 7.0 Beta 1 You can test WordPress 7.0 Beta 1 in any of the following ways: PluginInstall and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream.)Direct DownloadDownload the Beta 1 version (zip) and install it on a WordPress website.Command LineUse this WP-CLI command: wp core update --version=7.0-beta1WordPress PlaygroundUse a 7.0 Beta 1 WordPress Playground instance to test the software directly in your browser. No setup required-just click and go! The scheduled final release date for WordPress 7.0 is April 9, 2026. The full release schedule can be found here. Your help testing Beta and RC versions is vital to making this release as stable and powerful as possible. Thank you to everyone who contributes by testing! How important is your testing? Testing for issues is a critical part of developing any software, and it’s a meaningful way for anyone to contribute – whether or not you have experience. Details on what to test in WordPress 7.0 are available here. If you encounter an issue, please share it in the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums. If you are comfortable submitting a reproducible bug report, you can do so via WordPress Trac. You can also check your issue against this list of known bugs. Curious about testing releases in general and how to get started? Follow along with the testing initiatives in Make Core and join the #core-test channel on Making WordPress Slack. WordPress 7.0 will include new features that were previously only available in the Gutenberg plugin. Learn more about Gutenberg updates since WordPress 6.9 in the What’s New in Gutenberg posts for versions 22.0, 22.1, 22.2, 22.3, 22.4, 22.5 & 22.6. What’s new in WordPress 7.0? WordPress 7.0 boasts numerous upgrades in the editing and admin experience, delivering enhanced real time collaboration, refined customizability, new dashboard styles, and an expanded developer toolbox for people who create, design, and build with WordPress every day. Working as a team just got easier with the ability for multiple users to edit together in real time, while visual revisions allow a visual comparison between page versions, adding agility to the creation and review process. Working with patterns has been simplified, making layout updates and content changes more intuitive, while view transitions smoothly move you from screen to screen as you click. New and improved blocks and design features in 7.0 make sites more customizable, with video embed backgrounds in the Cover block, a responsive-enabled Grid block, and new Icons, Breadcrumbs and Heading blocks. An updated Navigation block makes menu changes easier and more reliable in fewer steps. Responsive, mobile-friendly controls in 7.0 allow you to hide or reveal blocks based on screen size, while client-side media handling speeds up media processing. The Font Library screen for managing installed fonts is now enabled for all themes, so site editors are always able to browse, install, and organize fonts. For developers, it’s now easier to build modern experiences while staying aligned with Core principles. The new WP AI Client in WordPress 7.0 brings a layer into Core that allows leveraging of AI models from any provider within the WordPress framework. This means plugins and themes can tap into any AI model to expound on its endless options. 7.0 offers even more versatility with the Client Side Abilities API that introduces a standardized way to register and run “abilities” in the browser, supporting richer, more consistent workflows. Additionally, 7.0 introduces PHP-only block registration with auto-generated inspector controls, adding a new dimension to block creation, while Block Bindings updates for pattern overrides expands support to custom dynamic blocks, giving block creators more options. Needless to say, this release offers a wide range of flexibility to creators, teams and developers, while bringing a visual refresh to the admin experience you know and love with a fresh default style. Work together in real time Building on the momentum started in WordPress 6.9, the ability for teams to create and edit together is more refined and robust in 7.0. With this version of WordPress multiple users can edit and collaborate on the same post or page in real time, with data syncing and stabilized notes for smoother teamwork and a more streamlined editing and review process. Real Time Collaboration: Teams can now edit posts and pages together live from multiple locations, with offline editing and data syncing enabled, and a new default HTTP polling sync provider with options for plugins or hosts to include websocket support. With this collaborative content creation workflow, teams can brainstorm more effectively and boost productivity. For the beta period, real-time collaboration is opt-in in order to get broader feedback and testing. Notes: 7.0 introduces real time syncing of notes that helps facilitate collaboration, a keyboard shortcut for new notes, and a series of quality-focused fixes that bring more stability to the Notes feature. A Refined Admin Experience WordPress 7.0 gives the wp-admin experience a boost with a fresh default color scheme, and a cleaner, more modern looking dashboard, while keeping the interface familiar. The upgraded dashboard enhances the editing experience with new visual revision comparisons, and smooth transitioning between screens. Visual Revisions: Working with revisions is even better in 7.0 with the added ability to make visual comparisons to revision versions within the editor. View transitions: Cross-document view transitions in the dashboard offer visual continuity with seamless movement from screen to screen. Customizing content with ease Creators have more flexibility in 7.0 with new tools for content and design, enhanced editing controls, and attention to mobile friendliness. Responsive Editing Mode: Block visibility is now more responsive and mobile-friendly, with the ability for blocks to be displayed or hidden based on screen size. Pattern Editing and contentOnly interactivity: WordPress 7.0 introduces pattern-level editing modes, a tree view for buttons and list blocks, and the ability to opt out of the default content only mode. The new Spotlight mode helps you isolate content in patterns and notes, while the Isolated Editor mode can be used for editing symbols and reusable pieces like synced patterns, template parts, or navigation. Block supports and design tools: 7.0 includes text line indent support, text column support, aspect ratios for wide and full images, dimension width and height support, and dimension presets, tools and controls. New blocks and design options at your fingertips 7.0 delivers a series of new and improved blocks and block features, a streamlined navigation workflow, and more versatile design options like video embeds as section backgrounds. Navigation Block: Navigation workflow is now more intuitive and clear, with improved editing and presentation. 7.0 introduces customizable navigation overlays as template parts, including mobile version overlays that can be hidden or revealed based on custom breakpoint settings. Heading Block: Heading levels are now available as block variations, giving more control over page hierarchy and design. New blocks: 7.0 makes building pages more diverse with new Breadcrumbs and Icons blocks. Cover block embedded videos: Video embeds can now be used as a background in the cover block, opening up opportunities for sleeker and more creative designs. The Grid block is now responsive-enabled allowing grid-based layouts to adapt more smoothly across screen sizes. The Gallery block now has lightbox support that lets the user click through and view each gallery image. Developer’s toolbox Working with WordPress on the backend is now more robust for developers, with new and enhanced API features that support flexibility and lay a foundation for future advancements. The Client Side Abilities API provides a client-side registry for WordPress capabilities that allows you to tap into new and innovative website options. WordPress 7.0 offers even more by introducing the Web Client AI API to Core, enabling access to generative AI models in one central interface. Web Client AI API: The new AI client and API acts as a command center for accessing and communicating with generative AI models, with providers remaining external to WordPress Core, and Abilities API integration. Abilities and Workflows API: With the new client side abilities package users have access to new and hybrid abilities, filter and search functionality for abilities, and an improved command palette and UI. Blocks and patterns created on the server: WordPress 7.0 boasts the ability for PHP-only blocks and patterns to be generated server-side and auto-registered with the Block API. DataForm: Introducing a new details layout, new controls (combobox, adaptiveSelect), and updated trigger for panel layout (dedicated edit button). Additionally, the initial iteration for validation is complete: all controls have support, and all layouts display error messages. DataViews: DataViews has a new activity layout, and a foundation has been laid to be able to register 3rd party types in future releases. CodeMirror update: CodeMirror has been updated to version 5.65.40, aiding more flexible extensibility and library options. Media processing in the browser WordPress 7.0 introduces Client-side media processing, leveraging the browser’s capabilities to handle tasks, like image resizing and compression, for smoother image processing. This enables the use of more advanced image formats and compression techniques, and reduces demand on the web server; providing a more efficient media handling process for both new and existing content, and supporting smoother media workflows. With so many options and enhancements in WordPress 7.0 Beta 1, this is still only the beginning. You can expect future releases to be even better. Just for you: a Beta 1 haiku: As sun kisses moon, Beta 1 ignites in bloom… Seven-oh lands soon. Props to @ellatrix, @jeffpaul, @annezazu, @chaion07, @zunaid321, @audrasjb, @mukesh27, @ankit-k-gupta, @oandregal, @westonruter, @karmatosed, @bph for reviewing and collaborating on this post! View the full article