What’s new for developers? (February 2025)

As we get closer to the end of winter here in Canada I can’t help but to think forward to longer days, warmer temperatures and what we’re going to grow in the garden this year. The shift of seasons brings about a renewed sense of possibilities, and just as the world around us changes, so does the WordPress ecosystem. There’s plenty happening for developers this month including a birthday and a few releases with plenty of enhancements.

Speaking of exciting events, WordCamp Asia is just around the corner! The schedule looks fantastic and is filled with some great speakers. If you’re going, I hope you have an amazing time soaking in all the knowledge, idea sharing and celebrating WordPress at one of the largest community events of the year!

Highlights

The road to 6.8 and 6.7.2 RC1

Scheduled to release on April 15th, WordPress 6.8 aims to enhance data views, query loops and block interactions. This release will also include new APIs to enhance extensibility and the integration of speculative loading aims to improve site performance. Read about this and more in the Roadmap to 6.8 post.

In release news, WordPress 6.7.2 is now available, the final release landed on February 11, 2025. Some of the key changes are as follows:

• Playwright was updated to the latest version (#62843)
• Schema version used throughout Twenty Twenty-Five was updated (#62455)
• Filters can now correctly check if the context is a WP_Post of type wp_navigation and limit the insertion of hooked blocks. (#62639)
• Changes were made to ensure that uppercase tag names, specifically those starting with “D” and preceded by whitespace, are correctly matched by the tag processor in WordPress (#62522)
• Fixes were made to ensure meta boxes are saved even if none of their areas are present in the post editor’s UI. (#67503)
• Changes to meta boxes to ensure combinations of meta boxes and device previews don’t cause conflicts. (#68902)

Happy birthday, Gutenberg!

Eight years ago, on February 3, 2017, the initial commit was made that introduced the world to Gutenberg, the revolutionary block editor that transformed how we write with and develop for WordPress. 

Over those eight years Gutenberg has evolved, becoming much more than a post editor. With features like full-site editing, block patterns and global styles, the editor has grown a whole new area in the ecosystem with an ever-growing list of third party blocks and themes.

With Gutenberg and the support from contributors all around the community, the future looks bright. Here’s to eight fantastic years of innovation, and many more to come!

Learn more about contributing to Gutenberg.

Plugins & tools

Gutenberg 20.1 and 20.2

The two latest releases of Gutenberg introduce enhancements for both developers and users. What’s new in Gutenberg 20.1 and 20.2 highlights changes to preview pages in data views, color picker and clear control changes, and more. Some of the key changes are:

• Details block now support allowedBlocks attributes providing developers a method to customizing available innerblocks. (#68489)
• A new default rendering mode was made available to post type supports. (#68549)
• A new field has been added allowing UI changes to data views and content preview field for posts and pages. (#67278)
• Upgrade Playwright to v1.49. (#68504)

Themes

Notable Block Updates

The following are notable changes to blocks from the point of view of a user:

• Navigation block now provides an option for users to clear a selection in the color picker. (#68454)
• Navigation block in the editor list view now displays the menu name alongside the block name. (#68446)
• Page List block now includes color support. (#66430)
• Social links block now provides an option for users to clear a selection in the color picker. (#68564)
• Post Comment Link block now displays border and shadow options by default. (#68506)
• Query Total block now displays border and shadow options by default. (#68507)

Resources

Developer Blog

And last, but not least, here’s the latest right here on the Developer Blog, if you’re ready to dive into customizing block categories:

• One hook to rule them all: The many faces of block categories

Props to @marybaum and @greenshady for reviewing this article and offering feedback.