WordPress to Host 6.3 Live Product Demo on Thursday, July 20

WordPress 6.3 is scheduled to be released one month from today on August 8, 2023. The live product demo date and time has now been set for Thursday, July 20, at at 16:00 UTC. Participants can join live via this Zoom link. Automattic-sponsored Gutenberg contributors Anne McCarthy and Rich Tabor will be hosting the event, moderated by Nathan Wrigley. They will highlight upcoming …

WordPress Unveils Plans for Real-Time Collaboration with Major Improvements to Revisions and the Media Library

In a series of four posts, Gutenberg lead architect Matías Ventura has outlined the project’s phase 3 plans for Real-Time Collaboration, Workflows, Revisions, and the Media Library. WordPress 6.3 is set to be the final major release of Phase 2, which focused on Customization. Phase 3 will shift focus from the editors and move into other parts of the admin …

WordPress 6.3 to Drop Support for PHP 5

WordPress is officially dropping support for PHP 5 in the upcoming 6.3 release, which is expected on August 8. WordPress’ minimum supported version has sat at PHP 5.6.20 since 2019, but will be updated to 7.0.0 in the next release. The recommended PHP version will stay the same at 7.4+. “The minimum supported version was last adjusted in WordPress 5.2 in …

WordCamp Dhaka 2023 Cancelled Due to Concerns of Corporate Influence on Community Decision-Making

WordCamp Dhaka (Bangladesh) 2023 has been cancelled by The WordPress Community Team due to concerns of corporate influence on the community decision-making process. The camp was scheduled for August 5, and organizers had already secured a venue and progressed on moving the camp forward. The Community Team published a statement on the event’s website, which cited the interference of corporate …

WordPress Plugin Review Team Adds 6 New Sponsored Volunteers, Opens Applications 

A new era has begun for WordPress.org’s Plugin Review Team. Mika Epstein, who has served for the past decade, is stepping down, but not before launching a new crew of volunteers. The team is responsible for approving newly submitted plugins, maintaining the Plugin Reviewer Handbook, as well as investigating any reported security issues and guideline violations. Historically, the Plugin Review …

Gutenberg 16.1 Introduces Pattern Creation and Library, Adds Distraction Free Mode to Site Editor

Gutenberg 16.1 was released this week, debuting of the Pattern Library, which coincides with reusable blocks getting renamed to synced patterns. Users can now create and manage their own patterns that will also show up in the block inserter. Custom patterns are saved to the new Library alongside custom template parts. This release also adds a new Distraction Free mode …

WordPress 6.3 Beta 2 Released, Ready for Testing

WordPress 6.3 hit a major milestone today with the release of Beta 2. The release leads opted to skip Beta 1, which was delayed yesterday after some technical issues with packaging the release, and have moved straight on to Beta 2. As WordPress 6.3 is set to be the last major release of the Gutenberg project’s Phase 2 focus on …

WordPress 6.3 Will Introduce A Command Palette

Last week Gutenberg contributors were engaged in a spirited debate regarding a proposal to rename the new Command Center to Wayfinder. The feature, designed to be an extensible quick search and command execution tool, will land in WordPress 6.3. The majority of participants in the discussion were strongly against calling it Wayfinder, as the term doesn’t translate well, nor does …