The Month in WordPress – January 2024

January kicked off with big plans for the WordPress project in the year ahead. Work on the WordPress 6.5 release is underway, with Beta 1 scheduled for next week and early testing opportunities. Let’s catch up on all the exciting updates from the past month.

Looking at 2024

In a recent episode of WP Briefing, WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy discusses some of the big-picture goals for WordPress this year. The main highlights include Phase 3 of the WordPress roadmap, which involves collaborative editing and significant updates to writing and design workflows. Another major focus is Data Liberation, a new initiative introduced at State of the Word 2023 with the ultimate goal of creating a more open web.

Data Liberation
Learn more about Data Liberation in 2024.

WordPress 6.5 is on its way

Preparations for WordPress 6.5, the first major release of 2024, are in full swing. The release squad was announced last month, and the next milestone will be Beta 1, scheduled for February 13.

Curious about what version 6.5 will bring? Check out this Hallway Hangout recap to learn about some upcoming features. You can also participate in this early testing opportunity to experience them first-hand and provide feedback.

Until 6.5 is released, you can upgrade to WordPress 6.4.3. This version includes numerous security and maintenance updates.

New in the Gutenberg plugin

Three new versions of Gutenberg shipped in January:

  • Gutenberg 17.4 featured improvements to List View and Style Revisions, more flexibility for background images in Group blocks, and significant advancements to the Data Views experience for the Templates page.
  • Gutenberg 17.5 made good progress in combining the Post Editor and Site Editor by introducing a shared preference panel, among other highlights.
  • Gutenberg 17.6 included the ability to extend allowed blocks within a parent block, along with several improvements to Block Hooks, the Data Views experience, and the Site and Post Editor unification.
Blue decorative background with dots, the WordPress logo, and text "Core Editor Improvement: Robust Revisions in the Site Editor."

WordPress 6.5 is slated to include some impactful changes and new features to current revision functionality in the Site Editor. Read more »

Team updates

https://wordpress.org/news/2023/10/episode-64-patterns-in-wordpress/

Requests for feedback and testing

WordPress events


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Thanks to Satyam Vishwakarma (Satya), Jenni McKinnon, and Lauren Stein for contributing to this edition of The Month in WordPress.

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