Contrary to earlier plans by the WordPress community, a second WordPress version will be released in 2025. WordPress 6.9 will be released soon, on December 2nd. In this article, you will find a summary of the features in the latest version!
WordPress is developed under open-source principles by volunteers. Without the WordPress community and active developers, we wouldn’t see new releases. When WordPress 6.8 was published in April this year, the community experienced various challenges. You can read more about this in our previous post.
Due to disputes concerning the WordPress trademark and its development, the number of active developers and participants in the WP project began to decline. Towards the end of 2025, there was a change as an improvement in the situation was observed, and WordPress 6.9 will be released this year after all.
What’s New in WordPress 6.9?
What are the updates in WordPress 6.9? This list is based on information published during the beta phase, so some details are bound change along the way. For the most accurate and up-to-date information on the new features, please visit the WordPress 6.9 Field Guide.
Versatile Template Management
Managing templates gets new features: templates can now be saved as drafts, they can be activated/deactivated, and custom templates are preserved across different themes.
Editor and Blocks
Blocks can now be hidden on the frontend but kept visible in the editor. This is useful if a piece of content on the site needs to be quickly hidden, but the block settings or information should be saved for later use or review. The drag-and-drop experience for blocks has also been improved.
New WordPress versions always introduce plenty of additional settings for existing blocks, so it’s worth exploring the settings thoroughly with the new version! A comprehensive description of the changes can be found on sites like gutenbergtimes.com.
New Blocks
- Accordion Block: Add collapsible accordion elements to your site.
- Term Query Block: Query and display taxonomies.
- Math Block: Display mathematical formulas.
- Time to Read Block: Display a reading time estimate for content.
- Dedicated blocks for displaying comment count and links.
Command Palette
The Command Palette is a familiar window from the Site Editor that allows for quick navigation within your WP installation. The Palette is now also available in the wp-admin dashboard. This change foreshadows the introduction of the new Abilities API interface.
API Updates for Developers
- Abilities API: An interface for callable WordPress capabilities. Built specifically for AI integrations and automations.
- Interactivity API: A new algorithm improves navigation capabilities, allowing for the creation of new user experiences.
- DataViews & DataForm Components: Support for more field types and new layouts. The DataViews component now includes infinite scrolling for large datasets, lockable filters, and enhanced multi-selection with the DataViewsPicker.
- HTML API: Updates make HTML parsing, transformation, and validation safer and more efficient across blocks, the Site Editor, and plugins, improving the accuracy of programmatic HTML handling.
- Block Bindings API: Added support for Date Blocks and Captions. The user interface has been improved to allow for custom sources.
Improved Performance
WordPress 6.9 operates more efficiently than its predecessors, with improvements seen in areas such as database queries and caching. RSS feed caching has also been enhanced. Cron jobs are now initiated during the shutdown phase instead of the init phase, reducing the impact on TTFB (Time to First Byte).
Most of the performance improvements relate to how styles are being loaded and handled:
- Block styles for classic themes are now loaded on demand, reducing the total amount of CSS used.
- The stylesheets for WordPress’s default block themes (Twenty themes) are also being minified.
- Generally, stylesheets use more HTML inlining, which reduces render blocking.
- Scripts and styles for hidden blocks are skipped by default.
- Scripts and modules now support the
fetchpriorityattribute.
WordPress 6.9 Availability
At Seravo, you can always use the latest WordPress version, and 6.9 will be available on our platform as soon as the new version is released. Before updating, it’s recommended to test the update in a staging environment (shadow).
WordPress 7.0 Release Date
When will WordPress 7.0 be released? The year 2026 heralds a larger update with the release of WordPress 7.0. At the time of writing, the exact release date is not yet known, and it remains to be seen how often new WP versions will be released in the future.
Some sources recently speculated that WP 7.0 might not see the light of day until 2027. However, it’s likely we won’t have to wait quite that long as the community returns to developing WordPress after a well-deserved holiday season.