What’s new in WordPress 6.8

Scheduled for release on 15th April, WordPress 6.8 brings a host of refinements to further strengthen the platform’s usability and design potential, largely building on the foundations of 6.7. With enhanced speed and performance, improved accessibility features, and streamlined design workflows, the update aims to demonstrate that the devil is in the detail, empowering enterprise organisations with even more flexibility and control. 

Smoother usability

Heavily focused on improving user experience, the bulk of WordPress 6.8 is made up of lots of small but significant enhancements to previously introduced functionality, streamlining workflows and making content creation more intuitive. This includes minor tweaks to data views, refining how users interact with dynamic content.

Write and Design modes will be introduced to offer a smoother editing experience, enabling users to focus on content and layout separately, along with a new option to switch between section views in the recently released zoom-out mode. This further improvement to the functionality will make it easier for enterprise organisations to quite literally see the bigger picture, and save valuable time.

Additionally, it will soon be possible to dynamically insert blocks into block themes with greater precision and control via the Block Hooks API, and keep track of the overall number of posts in a query loop via a newly introduced Query Total Block. The size of action buttons in the Grid layout are also set to be reduced to help improve efficiency.

Increased inclusivity

WordPress 6.8 continues to prioritise accessibility, introducing a range of enhancements to ensure the platform is more user-friendly. Key updates include an audit of Storybook components and improvements to Grid layout semantics and navigation, making it easier for all users to interact with the interface. The release also addresses issues such as unclear admin notices and inaccessible tooltips, ensuring better compatibility with screen readers and assistive technologies.

Furthermore, the update aims to make admin notices clearer with the simple addition of prefixes (Warning, Error, Success, Info), improves the accessibility of custom links and metaboxes, and refines the Media Library as well as password-protected post error messages. Changes to font weights, button padding, and background colours are also mentioned in the long list of enhancements to improve readability and visual clarity, reinforcing WordPress’s commitment to meet accessibility standards and creating an inclusive experience for all users.

Speedy and secure

WordPress 6.8 continues the platform’s commitment to performance, with a focus on making sites faster and more efficient. While specific details are still under development, the update is expected to include optimisations for the block editor, improvements to core performance, and enhancements to the HTML API. These changes aim to enhance rendering speeds and streamline resource delivery, ensuring a smoother experience for both administrators and visitors.

Notably, the release will also offer another robust security update, which sees the adoption of bcrypt for password hashing. This major change strengthens the platform’s security for enterprises by replacing the older MD5-based hashing system, ultimately providing better protection for user credentials. 

For a detailed rundown of what’s scheduled for inclusion in the upcoming release, check out the official WordPress 6.8 roadmap.