Wordpress

The second Release Candidate (“RC2”) for WordPress 6.8 is ready for download and testing! This version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it’s recommended that you evaluate RC2 on a test server and site. Reaching this phase of the release cycle is an important milestone. While release candidates are considered ready for release, testing remains crucial to ensure that everything in WordPress 6.8 is the best it can be. You can test WordPress 6.8 RC2 in four ways: PluginInstall and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).Direct DownloadDownload the RC2 version (zip) and install it on a WordPress website.Command LineUse the following WP-CLI command: wp core update –version=6.8-RC2WordPress PlaygroundUse the 6.8 RC2 WordPress Playground instance (available within 35 minutes after the release is ready) to test the software directly in your browser without the need for a separate site or setup. The current target for the WordPress 6.8 release is April 15, 2025. Get an overview of the 6.8 release cycle, and check the Make WordPress Core blog for 6.8-related posts in the coming weeks for further details. What’s in WordPress 6.8 RC2? Get a recap of WordPress 6.8’s highlighted features in the Beta 1 announcement. For more technical information related to issues addressed since RC1, you can browse the following links: GitHub commits for 6.8 since March 25 Closed Trac tickets since March 25 Want to look deeper into the details and technical notes for this release? These recent posts cover some of the latest updates: Speculative Loading in 6.8 WordPress 6.8 will use bcrypt for password hashing Roster of design tools per block (WordPress 6.8 edition) More efficient block type registration in 6.8 Updates to user-interface components in WordPress 6.8 Interactivity API best practices in 6.8 Internationalization improvements in 6.8 How you can contribute WordPress is open source software made possible by a passionate community of people collaborating on and contributing to its development. The resources below outline various ways you can help the world’s most popular open source web platform, regardless of your technical expertise. Get involved in testing Testing for issues is critical to ensuring WordPress is performant and stable. It’s also a meaningful way for anyone to contribute. This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 6.8. For those new to testing, follow this general testing guide for more details on getting set up. If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs. Curious about testing releases in general? Follow along with the testing initiatives in Make Core and join the #core-test channel on Making WordPress Slack. Search for vulnerabilities From now until the final release of WordPress 6.8 (scheduled for April 15, 2025), the monetary reward for reporting new, unreleased security vulnerabilities is doubled. Please follow responsible disclosure practices as detailed in the project’s security practices and policies outlined on the HackerOne page and in the security white paper. Update your theme or plugin For plugin and theme authors, your products play an integral role in extending the functionality and value of WordPress for all users. Thanks for continuing to test your themes and plugins with the WordPress 6.8 beta releases. With RC2, you’ll want to conclude your testing and update the “Tested up to” version in your plugin’s readme file to 6.8. If you find compatibility issues, please post detailed information to the support forum. Help translate WordPress Do you speak a language other than English? ¿Español? Français? Русский? 日本語? हिन्दी? বাংলা? मराठी? ಕನ್ನಡ? You can help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages. This release milestone (RC2) also marks the hard string freeze point of the 6.8 release cycle. An RC2 haiku Testing, 1, 2, 3 It’s almost April fifteenth Squashing all the bugs Thank you to the following contributors for collaborating on this post: @michelleames, @tacoverdo, @jopdop30, @vgnavada. View the full article

The first Release Candidate (“RC1”) for WordPress 6.8 is ready for download and testing! This version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it’s recommended that you evaluate RC1 on a test server and site. Reaching this phase of the release cycle is an important milestone. While release candidates are considered ready for release, testing remains crucial to ensure that everything in WordPress 6.8 is the best it can be. You can test WordPress 6.8 RC1 in four ways: PluginInstall and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).Direct DownloadDownload the RC1 version (zip) and install it on a WordPress website.Command LineUse the following WP-CLI command: wp core update --version=6.8-RC1WordPress PlaygroundUse the 6.8 RC1 WordPress Playground instance (available within 35 minutes after the release is ready) to test the software directly in your browser without the need for a separate site or setup. You can test the RC1 version in four ways. The current target for the WordPress 6.8 release is April 15, 2025. Get an overview of the 6.8 release cycle, and check the Make WordPress Core blog for 6.8-related posts in the coming weeks for further details. What’s in WordPress 6.8 RC1? Get a recap of WordPress 6.8’s highlighted features in the Beta 1 announcement. For more technical information related to issues addressed since Beta 3, you can browse the following links: GitHub commits for 6.8 since March 18 Closed Trac tickets since March 18 Want to look deeper into the details and technical notes for this release? These recent posts cover some of the latest updates: Speculative Loading in 6.8 WordPress 6.8 will use bcrypt for password hashing Roster of design tools per block (WordPress 6.8 edition) More efficient block type registration in 6.8 Updates to user-interface components in WordPress 6.8 Interactivity API best practices in 6.8 Internationalization improvements in 6.8 How you can contribute WordPress is open source software made possible by a passionate community of people collaborating on and contributing to its development. The resources below outline various ways you can help the world’s most popular open source web platform, regardless of your technical expertise. Get involved in testing Testing for issues is critical to ensuring WordPress is performant and stable. It’s also a meaningful way for anyone to contribute. This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 6.8. For those new to testing, follow this general testing guide for more details on getting set up. If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs. Curious about testing releases in general? Follow along with the testing initiatives in Make Core and join the #core-test channel on Making WordPress Slack. Search for vulnerabilities From now until the final release of WordPress 6.8 (scheduled for April 15, 2025), the monetary reward for reporting new, unreleased security vulnerabilities is doubled. Please follow responsible disclosure practices as detailed in the project’s security practices and policies outlined on the HackerOne page and in the security white paper. Update your theme or plugin For plugin and theme authors, your products play an integral role in extending the functionality and value of WordPress for all users. Thanks for continuing to test your themes and plugins with the WordPress 6.8 beta releases. With RC1, you’ll want to conclude your testing and update the “Tested up to” version in your plugin’s readme file to 6.8. If you find compatibility issues, please post detailed information to the support forum. Help translate WordPress Do you speak a language other than English? ¿Español? Français? Русский? 日本語? हिन्दी? বাংলা? मराठी? You can help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages. This release milestone (RC1) also marks the hard string freeze point of the 6.8 release cycle. An RC1 haiku March fades, nearly there, Six-eight hums—a steady beat, RC greets the world. Thank you to the following contributors for collaborating on this post: @joemcgill @benjamin_zekavica @courane01 @mkrndmane @audrasjb @areziaal @ankit-k-gupta @krupajnanda. View the full article

WordPress 6.8 Beta 3 is now ready for testing! This beta version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it is recommended you evaluate Beta 3 on a test server and site. You can test WordPress 6.8 Beta 3 in four ways: PluginInstall and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).Direct DownloadDownload the Beta 3 version (zip) and install it on a WordPress website.Command LineUse the following WP-CLI command: wp core update --version=6.8-beta3WordPress PlaygroundUse the 6.8 Beta 3 WordPress Playground instance to test the software directly in your browser without the need for a separate site or setup. The current target date for the final release of WordPress 6.8 is April 15, 2025. Get an overview of the 6.8 release cycle, and check the Make WordPress Core blog for 6.8-related posts in the coming weeks for more information. Catch up on what’s new in WordPress 6.8: Read the Beta 1 and Beta 2 announcements for details and highlights. How to test this release Your help testing the WordPress 6.8 Beta 3 version is key to ensuring everything in the release is the best it can be. While testing the upgrade process is essential, trying out new features is equally important. This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 6.8. If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs. Curious about testing releases in general? Follow along with the testing initiatives in Make Core and join the #core-test channel on Making WordPress Slack. Vulnerability bounty doubles during Beta/RC Between Beta 1, released on March 4, 2025, and the final Release Candidate (RC) scheduled for April 8, 2025, the monetary reward for reporting new, unreleased security vulnerabilities is doubled. Please follow responsible disclosure practices as detailed in the project’s security practices and policies outlined on the HackerOne page and in the security white paper. Beta 3 updates and highlights WordPress 6.8 Beta 3 contains more than 3 Editor updates and fixes since the Beta 2 release, including 16 tickets for WordPress core. Each beta cycle focuses on bug fixes; more are on the way with your help through testing. You can browse the technical details for all issues addressed since Beta 3 using these links: GitHub commits for 6.8 since March 12, 2025 Closed Trac tickets since March 12, 2025 A Beta 3 haiku Beta three refines, WordPress shapes with steady hands, Code grows into form. Props to @benjamin_zekavica @krupajnanda @ankit-k-gupta @joemcgill for proofreading and review. View the full article

WordPress 6.8 Beta 2 is now ready for testing! This beta version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, you should evaluate Beta 2 on a test server and site. You can test WordPress 6.8 Beta 2 in four ways: PluginInstall and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream.)Direct DownloadDownload the Beta 2 version (zip) and install it on a WordPress website.Command LineUse this WP-CLI command:wp core update –version=6.8-beta2WordPress PlaygroundUse the 6.8 Beta 2 WordPress Playground instance to test the software directly in your browser. No setup is required–just click and go! The current target date for the final release of WordPress 6.8 is April 15, 2025. Get an overview of the 6.8 release cycle, and check the Make WordPress Core blog for 6.8-related posts in the coming weeks for more information. Catch up on what’s new in WordPress 6.8: Read the Beta 1 announcement for details and highlights. How to test this release Your help testing the WordPress 6.8 Beta 2 version is key to ensuring everything in the release is the best it can be. While testing the upgrade process is essential, trying out new features is equally important. This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 6.8. If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs. Curious about testing releases in general? Follow along with the testing initiatives in Make Core and join the #core-test channel on Making WordPress Slack. Vulnerability bounty doubles during Beta/RC Between Beta 1, released on March 4, 2025, and the final Release Candidate (RC) scheduled for April 8, 2025, the monetary reward for reporting new, unreleased security vulnerabilities is doubled. Please follow responsible disclosure practices as detailed in the project’s security practices and policies outlined on the HackerOne page and in the security white paper. Beta 2 updates and highlights WordPress 6.8 Beta 2 contains more than 14 Editor updates and fixes since the Beta 1 release, including 21 tickets for WordPress core. Each beta cycle focuses on bug fixes; more are on the way with your help through testing. You can browse the technical details for all issues addressed since Beta 1 using these links: GitHub commits for 6.8 since March 4, 2025 Closed Trac tickets since March 4, 2025 A Beta 2 haiku Second wave refines, Lines of code like rivers flow, WordPress finds its form. Props to @ankitkumarshah @vgnavada @krupajnanda @michelleames @audrasjb @marybaum for proofreading and review. View the full article

WordPress 6.8 Beta 1 is ready for download and testing! This beta version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, set up a test environment or a local site to explore the new features. How to Test WordPress 6.8 Beta 1 You can test this beta release in any of the following ways: WordPress Beta Tester PluginInstall and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream.Direct DownloadDownload the Beta 1 version (zip) and install it on a WordPress website.Command Line (WP-CLI)Use this WP-CLI command: wp core update –version=6.8-beta1WordPress PlaygroundUse a 6.8 Beta 1 WordPress Playground instance to test the software directly in your browser. No setup required–-just click and go! The scheduled final release date for WordPress 6.8 is April 15, 2025. Your help testing Beta and RC versions over the next six weeks is vital to ensuring the final release is everything it should be: stable, powerful, and intuitive. How important is your testing? Testing for issues is a critical part of developing any software, and it’s a meaningful way for anyone to contribute—whether or not you have experience. Details on what to test in WordPress 6.8 are here. If you encounter an issue, please share it in the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums. If you are comfortable submitting a reproducible bug report, you can do so via WordPress Trac. You can also check your issue against this list of known bugs. Curious about testing releases in general and how to get started? Follow along with the testing initiatives in Make Core and join the #core-test channel on Making WordPress Slack. WordPress 6.8 will include many new features that were previously only available in the Gutenberg plugin. Learn more about Gutenberg updates since WordPress 6.7 in the What’s New in Gutenberg posts for versions 19.4, 19.5, 19.6, 19.7, 19.8, 19.9, 20.0, 20.1, 20.2, 20.3, and 20.4. What’s New in WordPress 6.8 Beta 1 This is a polish release, with user enhancements throughout incorporated into the latest Gutenberg updates. WordPress 6.8 brings a luster and gloss that only a polish release can. WordPress 6.8 Beta 1 contains over 370 enhancements and 520 bug fixes for the editor, including design improvements, polishing the query loop, and more than 230 tickets for WordPress 6.8 Core. Here’s a glimpse of what’s coming: Editor improvements Easier ways to see your options in Data Views, and you can opt to ignore sticky posts in the Query Loop. Plus you’ll find lots of little improvements in the editor! The Style Book comes to Classic themes The Style Book now features a structured layout so you can preview site colors, typography, and block styles more easily. You can use the Style Book in classic themes with editor-styles or a theme.json file and includes clearer labels, and you can find them under Appearance > Design. Support for Speculation browser API WordPress 6.8 introduces native support for speculative loading, leveraging the Speculation Rules API to improve site performance with near-instant page loads. This feature prefetches or prerenders URLs based on user interactions, such as hovering over links, reducing load times for subsequent pages. By default, WordPress 6.8 applies a conservative prefetching strategy, balancing performance gains with resource efficiency. Developers can customize speculative loading behavior using new filters, since the API does not include UI-based controls. The existing Speculative Loading feature plugin will adapt to the core implementation, allowing deeper customization. Please test this feature in supported browsers (currently Chrome 108+ and Edge 108+, with more browsers evaluating) and provide feedback on #62503 to help refine its implementation. Major security boost WordPress 6.8 will use bcrypt for password hashing, which significantly hardens WordPress. Other hashing is getting hardened, too, throughout the security apparatus. You won’t have to change anything in your daily workflow. The features included in this first beta may change before the final release of WordPress 6.8, based on what testers like you find. Get an overview of the 6.8 release cycle and check the Make WordPress Core blog for 6.8-related posts in the next few weeks for further details. Caveat on testing 6.8 Beta 1 in versions older than 5.1 Due to an update made to the upgrade routine during this release, (see r59803), any upgrade from versions older than 5.1 will fail. Folks are working to resolve this specific issue, so please hold off on reporting on this while testing the Beta 1 release. Vulnerability bounty doubles during Beta & Release Candidate The WordPress community sponsors a monetary reward for reporting new, unreleased security vulnerabilities. This reward doubles during the period between Beta 1 on March 4, 2025 and the final Release Candidate (RC) scheduled for April 15, 2025. Please follow responsible disclosure practices as detailed in the project’s security practices and policies. You can find those on the HackerOne page and in the security white paper. Just for you: a Beta 1 haiku March winds shift the tide. Hands unite in open source; WordPress moves ahead. Props to @audrasjb @marybaum @mamaduka @michelleames @bph @jorbin @joemcgill @krupajnanda @desrosj @benjamin_zekavica for reviewing and collaborating on this post! View the full article

Over 1,400 attendees from 71 countries gathered at the Philippine International Convention Center in Manila, and nearly 15,000 more joined online, for WordCamp Asia 2025. It’s the people. It’s the friendships and the stories. Matt Mullenweg, WordPress Cofounder The flagship WordPress event started with a dedicated Contributor Day, followed by two days of engaging talks, panels, hands-on workshops, and networking. Notable guests included WordPress Cofounder Matt Mullenweg and Gutenberg Lead Architect Matías Ventura, who were joined by a diverse lineup of speakers and panelists. Throughout the event, the sponsor hall buzzed with activity as companies from across the WordPress ecosystem showcased their latest products, engaged with attendees, and offered live demos and giveaways. Each day, attendees refueled with diverse food offerings featuring Filipino favorites, turning meals into a prime networking opportunity where new connections were made and ideas were exchanged. New Ways to Engage This year’s event introduced several new programs to the schedule: Solutions Spotlight—a series of dynamic 10-minute lightning talks that gave an inside look at innovative products, cutting-edge strategies, and real-world solutions from top-tier sponsors, all designed to help attendees succeed in the WordPress ecosystem. These fast-paced sessions offered a unique opportunity to discover how leading brands are solving challenges, empowering users, and shaping the future of WordPress. YouthCamp, a dedicated event for kids and teens ages 8-17, offered a full day of free, hands-on sessions designed to spark creativity and introduce the world of WordPress and open source. Through interactive workshops covering web basics, design, and development, participants gained practical skills while exploring the power of building online. The new Career and Social Corners enhanced networking, fostered meaningful connections, and created new opportunities for those within the WordPress community. Career Corner was the go-to space for attendees exploring career opportunities, connecting with sponsors, and discovering exciting new roles. Meanwhile, Social Corner offered a relaxed, lounge-style environment where attendees could engage in informal discussions over refreshments. Contributor Day WordCamp Asia kicked off with an incredible Contributor Day, bringing together almost 800 contributors, many of them new, to collaborate, share knowledge, and give back to WordPress. With 37 dedicated table leads and 16 experts from the Human Library guiding the way, participants of all experience levels engaged in meaningful discussions, tackled important tasks, and made a lasting impact on the WordPress project. Key contributions included resolving a critical media bug, advancing vertical text editing in Gutenberg, and refining the editing experience with dozens of issue closures. Performance optimizations and accessibility improvements abounded, joined by seven fresh patterns, and over 4,000 newly translated strings. New tools and workflows were explored to enhance testing and development. The day also saw meaningful conversations between hosting providers and users, improvements to event organizing processes, and hands-on training. With innovative ideas, new faces, and significant progress across multiple areas, Contributor Day reinforced the spirit of open source collaboration that drives WordPress forward. The Future is WordPress On the first full conference day, attendees gathered to celebrate the power of open source collaboration and innovation. Opening remarks from global and local event leads reflected on the incredible journey of WordCamp Asia, tracing its roots back to the first Southeast Asian WordCamp in Manila in 2008. This full-circle moment underscored how the WordPress community has flourished over the years, driven by shared knowledge and a commitment to an open web. The excitement continued with a highly anticipated opening keynote from Matías Ventura, who shared insights into the future of Gutenberg and WordPress, inspiring attendees to embrace the next wave of innovation and creativity in content publishing. The day then began in earnest. Talks highlighted new ways to integrate WordPress with external applications, opening possibilities for more interactive and scalable digital experiences. Simultaneously, content strategists and marketers explored evolving best practices in SEO, learning how to optimize their sites for visibility, engagement, and long-term growth. These sessions emphasized the importance of adaptability in a constantly evolving digital landscape, ensuring that WordPress users stay ahead of industry trends. Workshops throughout the day provided hands-on learning experiences tailored to a wide range of skill levels. Developers refined their expertise, gaining practical knowledge they could apply to their own projects. Accessibility advocates led discussions on designing for inclusivity, showcasing strategies to make WordPress-powered websites more navigable and user-friendly for people of all abilities. As the conference continued into the afternoon, conversations expanded to performance optimization and emerging technologies shaping the future of WordPress. A dedicated session explored AI-driven workflows, demonstrating how artificial intelligence can enhance site performance, automate repetitive tasks, and create more personalized user experiences. These discussions showcased the evolving role of WordPress as a versatile platform that extends beyond traditional publishing. The first day culminated in a thought-provoking keynote panel, WordPress in 2030, where industry leaders explored the future of the platform. The discussion covered the expanding open source community, emerging technologies, and the role of education and mentorship. Panelists shared their perspectives on the opportunities and challenges ahead, encouraging attendees to actively shape the future of WordPress by contributing, innovating, and advocating for an open web. Returning for the final day of WordCamp Asia 2025, attendees explored a new set of sessions designed to push the boundaries of web development and strategy. Technical discussions on advanced Gutenberg block development highlighted innovative ways to build more dynamic and interactive content experiences, while another session examined performance optimization strategies to enhance site speed, accessibility, and overall user engagement. Content creators and marketers gained valuable insights into audience growth, effective storytelling, and data-driven content strategies to maximize impact. The final sessions of the conference reinforced WordPress’s adaptability and innovation, equipping attendees with new skills and strategies. Q&A As the final day drew to a close, Matt shared historic photos from WordCamp Davao 2008 in the Philippines, and then answered questions from the audience. Questions covered a variety of topics, incluiding: publishing on the open web, AI, headless WordPress, education, and Matt’s personal motivations. It was clear throughout the Q&A that the future of WordPress is as bright as the island-themed attire at the event’s after-party. Closing Thank you to all the hard-working organizers who made this event possible, the speakers who took the stage, the visitors who ventured to Manila, and everyone who tuned in from around the world. Our hope is that every WordCamp attendee leaves with new knowledge, new friends, and new inspiration to build a better web. Be sure to mark your calendars for other major WordPress events in 2025: WordCamp Europe (Basel, Switzerland) and WordCamp US (Portland, Oregon, USA). Then join us in Mumbai, India for WordCamp Asia 2026! View the full article

This year is set to be transformative for WordPress, yet many decision-makers risk overlooking the immense opportunities ahead. Our new “WordPress in 2025” report highlights why WordPress should be a cornerstone of your long-term strategy. Stay ahead of the curve—read the report now to see how WordPress can drive growth and innovation for your business in the years to come. Some of the key points we explore: As proprietary “next-gen” CMS hype fizzles out and enterprise budgets shift priorities, open-source CMSs like WordPress are primed to gain ground in the commoditized CMS space. WordPress’ maturity and extensibility provide a high starting point for innovation. WordPress’ Block Editor has seen tremendous investment, amassing over 34,000 commits – more than entire competing CMS projects. New capabilities like Full Site Editing (FSE) give enterprises unprecedented ability to enable no-code site building. Just as being the first user-friendly publishing tool propelled WordPress’ initial growth, AI presents a similar opportunity. WordPress’ contributor community can build not just AI features, but an exciting multi-agent, LLM-agnostic ecosystem representing an intelligent content operating system. Pure-play headless vendors are working backwards to add no-code editing, while WordPress has long supported robust headless capabilities alongside its mature editor. For complex sites, hybrid architectures leveraging both are the pragmatic path forward. Download the full WordPress in 2025 (PDF) report directly to learn more. Don’t miss WP:25, the virtual event. Save your spot at our free event, WP:25, exploring the future of WordPress and featuring key people working with many of the ideas discussed in the report. About the report’s author, Noel Tock — Having built his first website back in 1995, Noel has long been watching the evolution of the CMS space. As a co-owner at one of the leading enterprise WordPress agencies, Human Made, his belief in the power of open source is as great as ever. Human Made is a WordPress VIP Gold Partner specializing in DXP, headless, AI and more. View the full article

The first major WordCamp of the year is here! WordCamp Asia 2025 lands in Manila, Philippines, from February 20-22, bringing together open source enthusiasts, developers, and WordPress professionals from across the region—and the world. With three packed days of learning, networking, and collaboration, this year’s event promises fresh insights, dynamic discussions, and plenty of opportunities to connect. Solutions spotlight Throughout the conference days, multiple presentations will focus on the solutions provided by our amazing sponsors. This is a great opportunity to learn more about their initiatives and solutions. Explore the solutions spotlight Keynotes, panels, and deep dives The main conference, which will be held on February 21-22, will feature a lineup of notable keynote speakers, including digital innovation leaders and open-source advocates. Attendees can expect diverse sessions on business strategy, development of best practices, and technical advancements. For those looking to sharpen their skills, presentations will dive deep into topics like SEO for WordPress, performance optimization, and AI-powered content creation. Plus, don’t miss the electrifying WordPress Speed Build Battle, where developers race to create stunning sites in record time. YouthCamp On February 22, WordCamp Asia 2025 will host YouthCamp, a pre-registered event designed to introduce young minds to WordPress and its endless possibilities. This initiative aims to engage the next generation of WordPress users, developers, and contributors through hands-on activities and interactive sessions Closing Q&A with Matt Mullenweg WordPress Cofounder Matt Mullenweg will wrap up the event with a live Q&A session on February 22. Whether attending in person or tuning in online, you can catch his insights live on the WordPress YouTube channel at 4:00 p.m. Philippine Time (08:00 UTC). After party As the sun sets on WordCamp Asia 2025, the excitement continues with the After Party (theme: Island Vibe)! Get ready to experience the vibrant spirit of the Philippines with a lively gathering at The Forum at PICC. Expect a night filled with great conversations, music, and a celebration of the WordPress community. Get WordCamp-ready Secure your WordCamp Asia 2025 tickets (if you haven’t already!) Browse the full schedule of sessions to plan your experience Follow WordCamp Asia on X, LinkedIn, and Instagram for real-time updates As always, be part of the conversation! Whether you’re attending in Manila or following along online, share your experiences using #WCAsia and #WordPress. Manila is calling—see you at WordCamp Asia 2025! View the full article

WordPress 6.7.2 is now available! This minor release includes 35 bug fixes, addressing issues affecting multiple components including the block editor, HTML API, and Customize. WordPress 6.7.2 is a short-cycle release. The next major release will be version 6.8 planned for April 15, 2025. If you have sites that support automatic background updates, the update process will begin automatically. You can download WordPress 6.7.2 from WordPress.org, or visit your WordPress Dashboard, click “Updates”, and then click “Update Now”. For more information on this release, please visit the HelpHub site. Thank you to these WordPress contributors This release was led by Aaron Jorbin. WordPress 6.7.2 would not have been possible without the contributions of the following people. Their asynchronous coordination to deliver maintenance fixes into a stable release is a testament to the power and capability of the WordPress community. Aaron Jorbin, Alex Lende, Alexandre Buffet, Andreas Pedersen, Andrew Ozz, Ankit Kumar Shah, apermo, Benedikt Ledl, bernhard-reiter, Brian Alexander, Carlos Bravo, Carolina Nymark, Cyrille, Daniel Post, darerodz, David Calhoun, David Smith, Dennis Snell, dhewercorus, Dion Hulse, Doug Wollison, Ella, Eshaan Dabasiya, Fabian Kägy, Fabian Todt, Felix Arntz, Felix Renicks, Francis Cabusas, Frank B., George Mamadashvili, ghinamt, Glynn Quelch, Greg Ziółkowski, James Koster, Jarda Snajdr, Jb Audras, jdnd, jeryj, Joe Dolson, Joe McGill, Jon Surrell, Jonathan Desrosiers, juanwp22, Juliette Reinders Folmer, Karthick, Kazuto Takeshita, Kelly Choyce-Dwan, Ketan Niruke, Lena Morita, levskipg, Maciej Ma?kowiak, Mario Santos, Matthew Boynes, Mayank Tripathi, Michal Czaplinski, Miguel Fonseca, Mitchell Austin, mreishus, Mukesh Panchal, Nadir Seghir a11n, Narendra Sishodiya, Naresh Bheda, neotrope, Nick Diego, Olga Gleckler, Parth vataliya, Pascal Birchler, paullb, Peter Wilson, Pitam Dey, redkite, Rishav Dutta, robertstaddon, rvoigt, Sagar Tamang, Sainath Poojary, seanlanglands, Sergey Biryukov, Scott Reilly, Shyam Kariya, smerriman, Stephen Bernhardt, Sukhendu Sekhar Guria, TobiasBg, Tonya Mork, Vishy Moghan, Weston Ruter, wongjn, Yogesh Bhutkar, zaoyao How to contribute To get involved in WordPress core development, head over to Trac, pick a ticket, and join the conversation in the #core and #6-8-release-leads channels. Need help? Check out the Core Contributor Handbook. Props to @joedolson, @joemcgill and @audrasjb for proofreading. View the full article

Making great software, great product that stands the test of time and not just survives but thrives through monumental technological shifts is incredibly hard. That challenge is part of the reason I love doing it. There is never a dull day, and the reward of seeing the code you wrote used by the most amazing creators in the world is an indescribable pleasure. When I see what people create with WordPress, some days I feel like I’m grinding pigment for Leonardo da Vinci or a slitting a quill for Beethoven. In open source, one thing that makes it even harder to ship great software is bringing together disparate groups of contributors who may have entirely different incentives or missions or philosophies about how to make great work. Working together on a team is such a delicate balance, and even one person rowing in the wrong direction can throw everyone else off. That’s why periodically I think it is very healthy for open source projects to fork, it allows for people to try out and experiment with different forms of governance, leadership, decision-making, and technical approaches. As I’ve said, forking is beautiful, and forks have my full support and we’ll even link and promote them. Joost is a self-proclaimed leader in the SEO space, an industry known for making the web better. He asked for and I gave him WordPress marketing leadership responsibility in January 2019 and he stepped down in June of 2019, I think we would both agree in those 5 months he was not effective at leading the marketing team or doing the work himself. Karim leads a small WordPress agency called Crowd Favorite which counts clients such as Lexus and ABC and employs ~50 people. Both are men I have shared meals with and consider of the highest integrity. I would trust them to watch any of my 15 godchildren for a day. These are good humans. Now go do the work. It probably won’t happen on day one, but Joost and Karim’s fork, which I’ll call JKPress until they come up with a better name, has a number of ideas they want to try out around governance and architecture. While Joost and Karim will be unilaterally in charge in the beginning, it sounds like they want to set up: A non-profit foundation, with a broad board to control their new project. A website owned by that foundation which hosts community resources like a plugin directory, forums, etc. No more centralized and moderated plugin and theme directories with security guidelines or restrictions are what plugins are allowed to do like putting banners in your admin or gathering data, everything done in a federated/distributed manner. The trademarks for their new project will either be public domain or held by their foundation. “Modernization” of the technology stack, perhaps going a Laravel-like approach or changing how WordPress’ architecture works. Teams and committees to make decisions for everything, so no single person has too much power or authority. Karim has a similar post. Joost says he has the time and energy to lead: So @photomatt – I saw the post by @automattic. I'm ready to lead the next releases. I am sure plenty of people and companies are willing to help me and we've got plenty of ideas on what we should be doing.#WordPress — Joost de Valk (@jdevalk) January 10, 2025 Now, as core committer Jb Audras (not employed by me or Automattic) points out, within WordPress we have a process in which people earn the right to lead a release: Before leading any major release of WordPress, please start with leading a minor one @jdevalk. Then, apply to be Triage Lead or Coordination Lead Deputy for a major release. These are the steps everyone in our community should follow before claiming to run « the next releases ». — Jb Audras (@AudrasJb) January 10, 2025 However in Joost and Karim’s new project, they don’t need to follow our process or put in the hours to prove their worth within the WordPress.org ecosystem, they can just lead by example by shipping code and product to people that they can use, evaluate, and test out for themselves. If they need financial or hosting support is sounds like WP Engine wants to support their fork: We appreciate @jdevalk and @karimmarucchi thoughtful call for constructive conversation, change and evolved leadership within the WordPress community. Moments of disruption challenge all of us to reflect and to act. WordPress’s success as the most widely used CMS is not the… — WP Engine (@wpengine) December 20, 2024 Awesome! (Maybe it’s so successful they rebrand as JK Engine in the future.) WP Engine, with its half a billion in revenue and 1,000+ employees, has more than enough resources to support and maintain a legitimate fork of WordPress. And they are welcome to use all the GPL code myself and others have created to do so, including many parts of WordPress.org that are open source released under the GPL, and Gutenberg which is GPL + MPL. Joost also is a major investor (owner?) in Post Status (which he tried to sell to me a few months ago, and I declined to buy, perhaps kicking off his consternation with me), so they have a news media site and Slack instance already ready to go. He also is an investor in PatchStack and appears to be trying to create a new business around something called Progress Planner, both of which could be incorporated into the new non-profit project to give them some competitive distinctions from WordPress. To make this easy and hopefully give this project the push it needs to get off the ground, I’m deactivating the .org accounts of Joost, Karim, Se Reed, Heather Burns, and Morten Rand-Hendriksen. I strongly encourage anyone who wants to try different leadership models or align with WP Engine to join up with their new effort. In the meantime, on top of my day job running a 1,700+ person company with 25+ products, which I typically work 60-80 hours a week on, I’ll find time on nights and weekends to work on WordPress 6.8 and beyond. Myself and other “non-sponsored” contributors have been doing this a long time and while we may need to reduce scope a bit I think we can put out a solid release in March. Joost and Karim have a number of bold and interesting ideas, and I’m genuinely curious to see how they work out. The beauty of open source is they can take all of the GPL code in WordPress and ship their vision. You don’t need permission, you can just do things. If they create something that’s awesome, we may even merge it back into WordPress, that ability for code and ideas to freely flow between projects is part of what makes open source such an engine for innovation. I propose that in a year we do a WordPress + JKPress summit, look at what we’ve shipped and learned in the process, which I’d be happy to host and sponsor in NYC next January 2026. The broader community will benefit greatly from this effort, as it’s giving us a true chance to try something different and see how it goes. View the full article

The modern web has gradually shifted from a vibrant tapestry of personal expression to a landscape of identical designs, where millions of websites share not just similar structures, but identical visual language, spacing, and interaction patterns. As we collectively gravitate toward the same “proven” layouts and “conversion-optimized” designs, we’re not just losing visual diversity – we’re ceding control over how we present ourselves to the world. This matters because genuine self-expression online isn’t just about aesthetics – it’s about maintaining spaces where authentic voices can flourish. When every blog has the same hero section, when every portfolio follows the same grid, when every restaurant site looks interchangeable, we create an echo chamber of sameness. The cost isn’t just visual monotony – it’s the slow erosion of the web’s ability to surprise, delight, and showcase truly individual perspectives. WordPress, with its emphasis on complete ownership and control, offers an opportunity to break free from this convergence of design, allowing creators to build digital spaces that truly reflect their unique voice and vision. Think of WordPress themes like album covers. They should have personality and create an immediate visual impact. The web has become too sanitized, with everyone chasing the same minimal, “professional” look. Great themes should: Have a strong point of view – like how Kubrick (the classic WordPress theme) defined an era with its distinctive header gradient. Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Embrace specific aesthetics boldly – whether that’s brutalist design, pixel art, hand-drawn elements, or distinctive typography. Create themes that excite people rather than just working for everyone. Design for specific use cases – like a theme for photographers that’s all about full-bleed images or a theme for writers that treats typography as art or a theme for musicians that feels like an album cover. Break some rules thoughtfully – because not every theme needs a hamburger menu. Not every theme needs to be mobile-first. Sometimes constraints create character. We need more themes that make people say “Wow!” or “That’s different!” rather than “That’s clean and professional.” The web needs more personality, more risk-taking, more fun. After spending countless hours digging through the WordPress theme repository, searching for designs that break the mold and spark excitement, I came up nearly empty-handed. Don’t get me wrong – there are plenty of well-built themes out there. But where’s the daring? The personality? The unexpected? If you’ve got a wild theme idea burning in your mind – that portfolio theme that looks like a vintage trading card collection, that blog theme inspired by zine culture, that restaurant theme that feels like a hand-drawn menu – now’s the time to build it. WordPress desperately needs your creativity, your weird ideas, your willingness to break the visual rules. The future of the web shouldn’t be a monochrome landscape of identical layouts. Let’s make WordPress themes exciting again. Let’s make the web weird again. View the full article

In order to give myself and the many tired volunteers around WordPress.org a break for the holidays, we’re going to be pausing a few of the free services currently offered: New account registrations on WordPress.org (clarifying so press doesn’t confuse this: people can still make their own WordPress installs and accounts) New plugin directory submissions New plugin reviews New theme directory submissions New photo directory submissions We’re going to leave things like localization and the forums open because these don’t require much moderation. As you may have heard, I’m legally compelled to provide free labor and services to WP Engine thanks to the success of their expensive lawyers, so in order to avoid bothering the court I will say that none of the above applies to WP Engine, so if they need to bypass any of the above please just have your high-priced attorneys talk to my high-priced attorneys and we’ll arrange access, or just reach out directly to me on Slack and I’ll fix things for you. I hope find the time, energy, and money to reopen all of this sometime in the new year. Right now much of the time I would spend making WordPress better is being taken up defending against WP Engine’s legal attacks. Their attacks are against Automattic, but also me individually as the owner of WordPress.org, which means if they win I can be personally liable for millions of dollars of damages. If you would like to fund legal attacks against me, I would encourage you to sign up for WP Engine services, they have great plans and pricing starting at $50/mo and scaling all the way up to $2,000/mo. If not, you can use literally any other web host in the world that isn’t suing me and is offering promotions and discounts for switching away from WP Engine. View the full article

On a memorable evening in Tokyo, State of the Word 2024 brought together WordPress enthusiasts from around the world—hundreds in person and millions more online. This event marked the first time State of the Word was hosted in Asia, reflecting the platform’s growing global reach. The setting couldn’t have been more fitting: a city where tradition and technology coexist in seamless harmony. Tokyo, much like WordPress itself, reflects a powerful blend of legacy and innovation, craftsmanship and technology, and moments of vast scale balanced by serene stillness. Tokyo is a city you feel. Matt Mullenweg, WordPress Cofounder During the event, the concept of kansei engineering emerged as a central theme. This Japanese design philosophy seeks to create experiences that go beyond function and aesthetics, focusing on how something feels. As highlighted during the keynote, this principle has quietly influenced WordPress’s development, shaping its design and user experience in ways that resonate on an instinctive level. The evening also celebrated Japan’s deep-rooted connection to WordPress. Nearly 21 years ago, Japan became the first country to localize WordPress, long before a formal translation framework existed. It all started with a single forum post from a user named Otsukare, launching a translation project that helped WordPress become a truly global platform. Seeing how far the Japanese WordPress community has come—both in market share and cultural influence—was a powerful reminder of what shared purpose can achieve. Wapuu, WordPress’s beloved mascot, was also born in Japan. What began as a simple idea for a fun and friendly representation of WordPress evolved into a global phenomenon. Thanks to Kazuko Kaneuchi’s generous open-source contribution, Wapuu has been reimagined by WordPress communities worldwide, each version infused with local character. This uniquely Japanese creation has helped make WordPress more welcoming, approachable, and fun wherever it appears. WordPress Growth in 2024 WordPress cofounder Matt Mullenweg highlighted significant achievements that underscored WordPress’s growth, resilience, and expanding global presence in 2024. He shared that WordPress now powers 43.6% of all websites globally, with a CMS market share of 62.3%. In Japan, WordPress’s influence is even more pronounced, powering 58.5% of websites and commanding an 83% CMS market share. This remarkable statistic reinforces the platform’s enduring role as a cornerstone of the open web and accentuates Japan’s deep-rooted commitment to the WordPress ecosystem and its developers’ significant contributions. WordPress sites using languages other than English are expected to surpass English-language sites by 2025. German recently overtook Japanese as the third-most-used language, though Japanese remained close behind. Meanwhile, emerging languages like Farsi experienced rapid adoption, reflecting the platform’s expanding multilingual ecosystem. In Southeast Asia, languages such as Indonesian, Vietnamese, and Thai saw substantial year-over-year growth, signaling broader adoption across diverse regions. Core downloads surged to nearly half a billion annually, with the notable releases of WordPress 6.5, 6.6, and 6.7. WordPress’s design and development ecosystem flourished as well. Over 1,700 new themes were uploaded in 2024, bringing more than 1,000 block themes to the official repository and reflecting increased interest in modern, flexible site design. The plugin ecosystem also saw record-breaking activity this year. Plugin downloads surged toward 2.35 billion, representing a 20% year-over-year increase. Plugin updates exceeded 3 billion and are on track to surpass 3.5 billion by year’s end. Notably, the Plugin Review Team made transformative improvements, drastically reducing the average review wait time. Their efficiency gains were complemented by the launch of the Plugin Check tool, which reduced submission issues by 41% while enabling the team to approve 138% more plugins each week. These accomplishments showcase WordPress’s resilience, adaptability, and ever-expanding influence. As the platform continues to evolve, its global community remains at the heart of its success, driving innovation and ensuring that WordPress thrives as the leading tool for building the open web. Help shape the future of WordPress: Join a contributor team today! Make WordPress Advancing the Platform WordPress lead architect, Matías Ventura, highlighted WordPress’s evolution through the lenses of writing, design, building, and development, demoing various pieces of new and forthcoming enhancements. Writing The writing experience in WordPress saw notable advancements this year, with an improved distraction-free mode that helps users to focus on content creation without interface distractions. Now you can directly select the image itself to drag and drop it where you want, even enabling on-the-fly gallery creation when you drop images next to each other. Additionally, the introduction of block-level comments in the editor, currently an experimental feature, promises to reshape collaborative workflows by enabling teams to leave notes directly on blocks. These enhancements all work together to make writing, composing, and editing in WordPress feel more fluid, personal, and pleasant than ever. Design Along with new default theme Twenty Twenty-Five, more than 1,000 block themes offer tailored starting points for different site types, including portfolios, blogs, and business sites. Designers can also utilize the improved Style Book for a comprehensive view of their site’s appearance, ensuring a smooth design process. Design work isn’t just about aesthetics—it’s also about creating the right environment and guardrails. It’s important that users can interact with their site, add content, replace media, and choose sections without needing to know the layout details. We’re implementing better default experiences to help you focus exclusively on the content or on the design, depending on your needs at the moment. This all works seamlessly with the zoom-out view, where users can compose content using patterns without having to set up every individual block. Having a bird’s-eye view of your site can really help you gain a different perspective. These design capabilities scale with you as your WordPress projects grow. WordPress’s approach to design is systematic: blocks combine to form patterns, patterns form templates, and templates help separate content from presentation. Building WordPress’s content management capabilities allow working at scale and across teams. Central to this is the introduction of Block Bindings, which merge the flexibility of blocks with the structured power of meta fields. This feature allows block attributes to be directly linked to data sources like post meta, reducing the need for custom blocks while creating deeper, more dynamic content relationships. The familiar block interface remains intact, making complex data management feel seamless. This connects naturally with our broader work on Data Views for post types and meta fields. These updates reinforce WordPress’s role as a powerful content management system by connecting its core primitives—blocks, post types, taxonomies, and meta fields—more intuitively. Development Lastly, Matías showcased a range of groundbreaking tools that empower WordPress developers and streamline their workflows. One of the highlights was the new Templates API, which has simplified the process of registering and managing custom templates. Future updates to the API will allow users to register and activate templates seamlessly, enabling dynamic site customizations such as scheduling different homepage templates for special events or swapping category archives during campaigns. This flexible approach offers developers greater creative control in a standardized way. The session also explored the Interactivity API, designed to deliver fast, seamless website experiences by enabling server-rendered interactivity within WordPress. Unlike JavaScript-heavy frameworks, this technology keeps everything within WordPress’s existing ecosystem, bridging the gap between developers and content creators. Attendees saw live demos showcasing instant search, pagination, and commenting—all without page reloads—while maintaining a perfect performance score of 100 on Lighthouse. In addition, it was announced that responsive controls will receive significant attention, with new features being explored, like block visibility by breakpoint and adding min/max controls to the columns block. The WordPress Playground also emerged as a game-changer, allowing users to spin up WordPress sites directly in their browsers, experiment with Blueprints, and manage projects offline. With improved GitHub integration and expanded documentation, WordPress developers now have a more accessible and powerful toolkit than ever before. An AI Future Returning to the stage, Matt noted that Gutenberg’s evolution is paving the way for AI-powered site building while keeping creative control in users’ hands. A recent speed building challenge on WordPress’s YouTube channel showcased this potential, with Nick Diego using AI-assisted tools and Ryan Welcher building manually. While the AI-assisted approach won, the key takeaway was that AI isn’t here to replace developers but to enhance creativity and efficiency. Community Impact and Global Reach When WordPress Executive Director Mary Hubbard took the stage, she emphasized WordPress’s commitment to its open-source mission and the power of its global community. Mary shared her passion for defending WordPress’s principles, reaffirming that when users choose WordPress, they should receive the authentic, community-driven experience that the platform stands for. This commitment to clarity, trust, and open-source integrity is central to ensuring WordPress’s long-term sustainability and success. Mary Hubbard, WordPress Executive Director In 2024, WordPress’s global influence surged through expanded educational programs, developer contributions, and grassroots initiatives. The platform’s social media following grew to 2.3 million, while major events like WordCamps and live-streamed gatherings attracted millions of attendees and viewers, connecting people worldwide. Learn WordPress introduced Structured Learning Pathways, offering tailored tracks for beginners and developers, fostering a growing network of creators eager to learn and contribute. Grassroots programs flourished, with WP Campus Connect bringing WordPress education to Indian colleges and innovation competitions in Uganda empowering young creators. In Latin America, the Community Reactivation Project reignited meetups across nine cities, fostering a network of over 150 active members and setting the stage for three new WordCamps in 2025. WordPress’s efforts also advanced through Openverse, which expanded its free content library to 884 million images and 4.2 million audio files, serving millions of creators worldwide and supporting WordPress’s broader mission of democratizing publishing. Whether through educational platforms, developer-driven innovation, or community-led projects, WordPress’s ecosystem continues to nurture shared learning, creativity, and collaboration, ensuring its growth and relevance for future generations. Japanese Community Highlights Junko Fukui Nukaga—Community Team rep, program manager, and WordCamp organizer—noted that WordPress’s prominence in Japan contributes to an economy now estimated to exceed 100 billion yen. In October of 2024, the Japanese WordPress community celebrated DigitalCube’s IPO on the Tokyo PRO Market, marking a milestone for the local WordPress ecosystem. Major contributors like Takayuki Miyoshi’s Contact Form 7 plugin surpassed 10 million active users, while companies like Sakura Internet and XServer built specialized WordPress infrastructure. Community events in Japan have also flourished, with 189 local meetups held throughout the year, fueled by dedicated volunteers and organizers. Translation Night gatherings have ensured WordPress remains accessible to Japanese users, reflecting a thriving collaborative spirit. Matt gave special recognition to Japan’s standout contributor, Aki Hamano, a Core Committer whose exceptional efforts elevated WordPress development over the past year. Hamano-san made an impressive 774 contributions to WordPress core, earning 162 props for WordPress 6.5, rising to 274 props for 6.6 as the second-highest contributor, and securing the top spot with 338 props for 6.7.Other notable Japanese contributors included Akira Tachibana, an active Docs Team member, and Nukaga, recognized for her exceptional community organizing efforts. Additionally, 13 Japanese contributors supported 5.4% of WordPress 6.6 development, showcasing the country’s growing influence in the WordPress ecosystem. Data Liberation Reflecting on the progress since the initiative’s launch last year, the focus remained on ensuring that WordPress not only becomes more powerful but also embodies freedom in its deepest sense—the freedom to move content anywhere, collaborate without limits, and create without constraints. This vision extends beyond individual sites to a broader web where content flows seamlessly across platforms, enabling unrestricted creativity and innovation. One compelling example demonstrated how easily ePub files could be imported into a WordPress site, integrating seamlessly with existing designs. This represents the initiative’s broader goal: making content migration and integration effortless. WordPress Playground plays a critical role in this vision by enabling easy site migration through a simple browser extension. With Playground as a staging area, migrating and adapting sites becomes intuitive and accessible. Q&A The floor was opened to questions in both Japanese and English. Questions from the audience, including Tokyo Vice author Jake Adelstein, covered the future of blogging, WordPress performance, the impact of AI search, and what democratizing publishing means today. Matt shared his excitement for more open platforms such as Mastodon and Bluesky, as well as his recommendations for optimizing your site for both humans and AI. A common thread throughout was that a personal website is an important part of your digital identity, and WordPress allows you to express yourself in fun and unique ways. Panels After attendees enjoyed a special performance by the pianist, Takai-san, industry leaders, creators, and innovators took the stage for panel discussions about the present and future of WordPress, moderated by Mary Hubbard. Publishing in the Open Featuring: Mieko Kawakami, Japanese Author and Poet Craig Mod, Author of Things Become Other Things Matt Mullenweg, WordPress Cofounder and Automattic CEO This first panel explored the transformative power of open-source publishing. Panelists shared insights into how open publishing has influenced their creative journeys, expanded audience engagement, and shaped storytelling across cultural boundaries. Publishing in the open has defined what I’ve done. All the best connections I’ve made in live have been the result of publishing in the open. – Craig Mod Publishing in the open, like WordPress, is about building community, mutual connections, and putting power back into the hands of creators. The Future of WordPress in Japan and Beyond Featuring: Hajime Ogushi, mgn CEO Genki Taniguchi, SAKURA internet Inc. Senior Director Matt Mullenweg, WordPress Cofounder and Automattic CEO The second discussion highlighted WordPress’s remarkable growth in Japan and its broader global impact. The discussion covered the drivers behind Japan’s adoption of WordPress, its thriving ecosystem of WordPress-based businesses, and emerging trends in web development. Compared to other CMSs the WordPress Japanese is much easier to use. – Hajime Ogushi The group discussed plugins such as Contact Form 7, the affordability of hosting WordPress, and local meetups and events Closing Thank you to all the guests who joined us on stage, those who ventured to Tokyo, and everyone who tuned in from around the world. Today’s event showcased how a free and infinitely flexible platform, an active global community, open innovation, and a commitment to a fully democratized web make us better at being who we are. From Tokyo, Arigatou Gozaimashita! For those interested in exploring past State of the Word keynotes, WordPress has curated a comprehensive YouTube playlist featuring keynotes from previous years. Watch them all here: State of the Word YouTube Playlist. Be sure to mark your calendars for major WordPress events in 2025: WordCamp Asia (Taipei, Taiwan), WordCamp Europe (Turin, Italy), and WordCamp US (Portland, Oregon, USA). View the full article

If you need a little push to start writing this winter, in the comfort of your familiar editor, here it is! You can now use the Block Editor to create electronic books and other documents—all completely offline. What a full circle moment for Gutenberg! The Block Editor contains so many features I miss when writing in other editors. It produces clean, semantic markup. You can paste in content from anywhere and the editor will clean it up for you, or paste a link onto selected text to auto-link. The List View and Outline panels allow you to easily navigate and inspect the content. And we’re constantly iterating on the Block Editor: more features and improvements are on the way, such as refined drag and drop interactions coming in early 2025. All this inspired me to wrap our editor in an app that can read and write local files—just as other document editors do. It turns out that EPUB is the best file format to store the content, because EPUB is an open standard for e-books that is essentially a ZIP file containing HTML and media—HTML like your WordPress posts! And just like that, the WordPress Block Editor can also be used to write books! The cool thing about EPUB files is that any e-book app, such as Kindle and Apple Books, can open it. So even if someone doesn’t have this editor, they can still easily read the content, which makes the files it produces portable. The editor allows you to create a cover, so you can easily distinguish between the books or documents you write. It will also treat each heading as a chapter so you can easily navigate content when opened in an e-book reader. The term “book” should be taken broadly. While the file that the Block Editor produces is primarily used for e-books, you can create any document with it. It’s possible to export your document to a DOCX file in case you need it, though the more complex blocks are not supported yet. It is still very much a nascent project. There’s many features left to be added, such as revisions and the ability to open any externally created EPUB files, or even DOCX files, so keep an eye out for these in the coming weeks and months! If you’re interested in this editor, it’s all open source, and I welcome any kind of help. For now, the demo editor is installable as a Progressive Web App (PWA) in Chrome. While it’s totally usable without installation, it does give you some nice benefits such as allowing you to open the EPUB files directly from your OS. In the future we might wrap it in proper native apps. Your feedback is welcome on GitHub! View the full article

Openverse.org, the vibrant platform for openly licensed media, has introduced a sleek and modern Dark Mode feature. This new site theme is designed to enhance users’ comfort and style as they explore the extensive library of creative resources. Whether for late-night browsing or simply a preference for darker aesthetics, Dark Mode makes engaging with Openverse easier on the eyes and more personalized than ever. By reducing screen brightness in low-light settings, Dark Mode offers a more relaxed viewing experience, helping to minimize eye strain. It also caters to users with light sensitivity, creating a more inclusive browsing environment. This thoughtful addition underscores Openverse’s commitment to delivering tools that are as functional as they are visually appealing. The release of Dark Mode is part of Openverse’s broader effort to innovate and adapt to the needs of its growing community. From the thoughtful interface design to the careful attention to accessibility, every detail was crafted to reflect Openverse’s mission of empowering creativity. By embracing modern frontend implementations like Dark Mode without compromising usability or accessibility, Openverse continues to grow while honoring the brand’s essence. In addition, this update lays the groundwork for future developments aimed at providing even more customization options and improved user experiences. “Dark Mode marks an exciting step forward for Openverse. We designed and implemented a new user interface that keeps the brand’s essence while providing the same search experience. We’re thrilled to see how this feature fits within users’ preferences and enhances the creative journey.” – Francisco Vera. Designer Ready to explore Openverse in a whole new light? Head to Openverse.org today and look for the Dark Mode toggle in the site footer. View the full article