There is some exciting news! A few days ago, the first – and probably only – major release 2025 was published. We also have fresh updates on WordPress Core, upcoming events and contribution opportunities.
WordPress 6.8
The major release focused primarily on performance and accessibility improvements, bug fixes and optimizations in the Block & Site Editor. In other words, instead of numerous new features, this update was primarily about making existing functions even better and more stable. Some highlights:
- New post preview function to display posts directly in their respective template layout
- Improved data view in the Site Editor for managing templates, including the option to customize the view
- New Query Total Block to display the number of posts found in a query
- Additional optimizations and enhancements in the query loop itself
- Improvements to the navigation block
- Speculative loading: Faster loading of pages through predicted user behavior. This allows URLs to be preloaded or prepared in the background based on where the user is likely to click next. This also optimizes an important KPI for Google – “Largest Contentful Paint”.
- Increased password protection
- Accessibility: Improved keyboard navigation and extended support for screen readers, accessible tooltips
Helpful Links:
Changes to the release cycle
Originally, three major releases were planned for 2025, as is the case every year. However, it has now been decided that 6.8 will remain the only major release this year and that the release cycles will be extended until further notice. However, this does not mean that nothing will happen in WP core until 2026. Improvements will continue to be released via minor updates and the Gutenberg plugin. However, major new functions will only be released with the next major release in 2026.
Greyd sponsors contributions
We recently announced that we have increased our own contribution to further WordPress core. Specifically, we are funding the work of Greyd developer Jessica Lyschik and core contributor Tammie Lister on the Block & Site Editor. Because when it comes to shaping the future of WordPress, few areas are as crucial as the Block & Site Editor. Incidentally, Tammie Lister was the design lead on WordPress 6.8.
Helpful Links:
Upcoming events
There are currently several exciting WordPress events coming up. We look forward to meeting you at one or more of these events:
- PressConf: Our CEO Mark and our COO Sandra are currently in Arizona. This event has a special business focus. We are looking forward to many interesting discussions about partnerships and cooperations.
- WordCamp Europe: The WordPress industry will be meeting in Basel June 5-7. Of course, we will also be there – this time with a talk on Website as a Service
- WordCamp Leipzig & Vienna: We are also looking forward to the smaller WordCamps, e.g. in May in Leipzig or this week in Vienna
- WordPress Meetup in Dubai: We are very happy to support our friends from WP Amelia in strengthening the WordPress community in Dubai with a half-day meetup on May 15
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