WordPress 6.0 Beta 4 is now available for testing!

Beta 4 was not part of the originally published development cycle. It is aimed at providing an opportunity for testing some specific issues that were resolved since Beta 3. WordPress will continue with the regularly scheduled release milestones on May 3rd, 2022, with the RC1 release.

This version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, and test this version of WordPress on a production or mission-critical website. Instead, it is recommended that you test Beta 4 on a test server and site. 

You can test WordPress 6.0 Beta 4 in three ways:

Option 1: Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).

Option 2: Direct download the beta version here (zip).

Option 3: Use WP-CLI to test: wp core update –version=6.0-beta4.
Do not use this option if your filesystem is case-insensitive.

The current target for the final 6.0 release is May 24, 2022, which is in less than a month! 

Additional information on the full 6.0 release cycle is available.

Check the Make WordPress Core blog for 6.0-related developer notes in the coming weeks which will detail all upcoming changes.

Explore What’s in Beta 4

Since Beta 4, various items have been addressed, including (but not limited to): 

• Update post content placeholder (#40177)
• Comments block: Fix glitches found while backporting (#40628)
• Show add pattern label when patterns are being prioritised (#40598)
• Fix regression with featured images in latest posts (#40662)
• Navigation Link: Avoid unnecessary re-renders (#40696)
• Navigation: Improve selector performance (#40700)
• Comments Title: Count toggle working in ‘Singular’ editing mode (#40728)
• [Writing Flow]: Try to fix multi-selection with shift+click (#40687)
• Fix alignment issue with comment author name (#40610)
• Comment Content: Show moderation message (#40612)
• Display paragraph breaks in comment contents block (#40667)
• Fix style comment awaiting moderation indentation (#40681)
• Fix: Page patterns don’t show when only one pattern is available (#40707)
• Update the placeholder for post excerpt (#40178)
• REST API: Fix regression in the Pattern Directory endpoint. (#55617)
• REST API: Fix the scheme for the Block Directory search endpoint. (#53621)
• Show comments previews in the Comment Query Loop. (#55634)
• Avoid DB error in comment meta queries. (#55218)

How to Help

Testing for issues is critical for stabilizing a release throughout its development. Testing is also a great way to contribute to WordPress. If you are new to testing, check out this detailed guide that will walk you through how to get started.

If you think you have run into an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. If you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, you can file one on WordPress Trac. This is also where you can find a list of known bugs.

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Another Haiku, Just for You

Beta four, surprise!
Iterating all day long
Time to share and test

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Thank you to the following contributors for collaborating on this post:
@dansoschin, @annezazu, and @costdev