79. Some Improvements in WordPress 6.8

With the release of the first beta versions, we’re beginning to learn about the performance improvements in this release.

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Program transcript

Hello, I’m Alicia Ireland, and you’re listening to WPpodcast, bringing the weekly news from the WordPress Community.

In this episode, you’ll find the information from March 10th to 16th, 2025.

The release of WordPress 6.8 is progressing, with Beta 2 now available, and Beta 3 scheduled for Tuesday, March 18, with the final release targeted for April 15.

This new version will incorporate significant internationalization improvements. The update now properly localizes PHPMailer error messages thanks to an extended, adjusted class and modifies plugin update emails to be sent in the administrator’s configured language. In addition, the “just-in-time” translation loading system is expanded to all plugins and themes, eliminating the need for manual calls to load text domains.

It also introduces an improvement in block type registration, by adding a new function that automatically registers multiple blocks based on a manifest generated during the build process. This innovation extends the functionality introduced in version 6.7 and removes the need for individual block registration calls, thereby simplifying plugin and theme development and maintenance.

Changes continue in Five for the Future with an even further reduction in contributions. This time, Newfold—a group of WordPress-licensed companies—has also reduced its contribution to 20 hours per week at Matt’s request.

This has also led to the proposal of having only one annual release, which would mean that this year WordPress 6.8 would be released, in 2026 WordPress 6.9, and at the end of 2027, coinciding with the Automattic vs. WP Engine trial, WordPress 7.0 would launch.

The Core Committers have a different vision, particularly regarding stability, security, PHP code updates, and they are calling for a much clearer roadmap, better testing systems, and an emphasis on boosting canonical plugins.

And finally, this podcast is distributed under a Creative Commons license as a derivative version of the podcast in Spanish; you can find all the links for more information, and the podcast in other languages, at WPpodcast .org.

Thanks for listening, and until the next episode!