The Month in WordPress – January 2024 – WordPress News

January kicked off with big plans for the WordPress project in the year ahead. Work on the WordPress 6.5 release is underway, with Beta 1 scheduled for next week and early testing opportunities. Let’s catch up on all the exciting updates from the past month.

Looking at 2024

In a recent episode of WP Briefing, WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy discusses some of the big-picture goals for WordPress this year. The main highlights include Phase 3 of the WordPress roadmap, which involves collaborative editing and significant updates to writing and design workflows. Another major focus is Data Liberation, a new initiative introduced at State of the Word 2023 with the ultimate goal of creating a more open web.

WordPress 6.5 is on its way

Preparations for WordPress 6.5, the first major release of 2024, are in full swing. The release squad was announced last month, and the next milestone will be Beta 1, scheduled for February 13.

Curious about what version 6.5 will bring? Check out this Hallway Hangout recap to learn about some upcoming features. You can also participate in this early testing opportunity to experience them first-hand and provide feedback.

New in the Gutenberg plugin

Three new versions of Gutenberg shipped in January:

• Gutenberg 17.4 featured improvements to List View and Style Revisions, more flexibility for background images in Group blocks, and significant advancements to the Data Views experience for the Templates page.
• Gutenberg 17.5 made good progress in combining the Post Editor and Site Editor by introducing a shared preference panel, among other highlights.
• Gutenberg 17.6 included the ability to extend allowed blocks within a parent block, along with several improvements to Block Hooks, the Data Views experience, and the Site and Post Editor unification.

WordPress 6.5 is slated to include some impactful changes and new features to current revision functionality in the Site Editor. Read more »

Team updates

Requests for feedback and testing

WordPress events

• ?? WordCamp Asia 2024 is just around the corner! Organizers announced a tentative schedule and a Diversity Scholarship to fund the attendance of two active project contributors to their first flagship WordCamp.
• ?? Tickets for WordCamp Europe 2024 are on sale. The organizing team is looking for volunteers to help make the event in Torino, Italy, memorable.
• ?? WordCamp US 2024 shared details of the event to be held September 17-20 in Portland, Oregon. This WordCamp will have a strong focus on community collaboration with two Contributor Days.
• Check out these other WordPress events happening soon:

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Thanks to Satyam Vishwakarma (Satya), Jenni McKinnon, and Lauren Stein for contributing to this edition of The Month in WordPress.