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WordPress 5.5 Beta 4 is now available!

This software is still in development, so it’s not recommended to run this version on a production site. Consider setting up a test site to play with the new version.

You can test WordPress 5.5 Beta 4 in two ways:

• Try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (choose the “bleeding edge nightlies” option)
• Or download the beta here (zip).

WordPress 5.5 is slated for release on August 11th, 2020, and we need your help to get there!

Thank you to all of the contributors who tested the beta 3 development release and gave feedback. Testing for bugs is a critical part of polishing every release and a great way to contribute to WordPress.

Some highlights

Since beta 3, 43 bugs have been fixed. Here are a few changes in beta 4:

• Add "loading" as an allowed kses image attribute (see #50731).
• Add filter for the plugin/theme auto-update message in the Info tab of Site health (see #50663).
• $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] not a reliable when generating email host names (see #25239)
• Several backported fixes from Gutenberg are included in WordPress 5.5 Beta 4 (See PR #24218)

Developer notes

WordPress 5.5 has lots of refinements to polish the developer experience. To keep up, subscribe to the Make WordPress Core blog and pay special attention to the developers’ notes for updates on those and other changes that could affect your products.

How to Help

Do you speak a language other than English? Help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages!

If you think you’ve found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. We’d love to hear from you!

If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on WordPress Trac, where you can also find a list of known bugs.

Are you starting a new online store? A brick-and-mortar salon? A freelance consultation service? The new business name generator by WordPress.com is a one-stop tool to get you started with your next big idea.

Choosing a compelling, catchy name is a crucial step in any new project. That’s why we’ve launched a powerful tool that generates dozens of creative options for your business, store, or any other venture.

The business name generator is free and easy to use. Just enter one or more keywords, and it will generate dozens of potential names for you. 

When you find a name you like, you can instantly take the next step and buy a custom domain — a web address — that uses it. Ready to start a shiny new website for your business? You can do that with a few clicks, all without leaving WordPress.com.

Ready to take the business name generator for a spin?

WordPress 5.5 Beta 3 is now available!

This software is still in development,so it’s not recommended to run this version on a production site. Consider setting up a test site to play with the new version.

You can test WordPress 5.5 Beta 3 in two ways:

• Try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (choose the “bleeding edge nightlies” option)
• Or download the beta here (zip).

WordPress 5.5 is slated for release on August 11th, 2020, and we need your help to get there!

Thank you to all of the contributors who tested the beta 2 development release and gave feedback. Testing for bugs is a critical part of polishing every release and a great way to contribute to WordPress.

Some highlights

Since beta 2, 43 bugs have been fixed. Here are a few changes in beta 2:

• Plugin and theme versions are now shared in the emails when automatically updated (see #50350).
• REST API routes without a permission_callback now trigger a _doing_it_wrong() warning (see #50075).
• Over 23 Gutenberg changes and updates (see #24068 and #50712).
• A bug with the new import and export database Dashicons has been fixed (see #49913).

Developer notes

WordPress 5.5 has lots of refinements to polish the developer experience. To keep up, subscribe to the Make WordPress Core blog and pay special attention to the developers’ notes for updates on those and other changes that could affect your products.

How to Help

Do you speak a language other than English? Help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages!

If you think you’ve found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. We’d love to hear from you!

If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on WordPress Trac, where you can also find a list of known bugs.

Join us for The Official WordPress.com Growth Summit on August 11-13! At our first-ever virtual conference you will learn how to build and grow your site, from start to scale. Are you a blogger looking for ways to drive traffic and get more visitors? Are you a small business that would like to start selling more products and services on your site? Are you an artist or creator who would like to learn how to share your work? The WordPress.com Growth Summit will cover these topics (and many more) and provide indispensable advice to help you succeed.

The goal of this event is to inspire, connect you with the tools you need, and help you build your community. Sessions will take place across three tracks: blogging, business, and creative. You can take sessions on any or all tracks, and they’ll focus on four main topic areas: 

• Site Structure & Design: Make your website look its best.
• Content: Create great content to help your website grow.
• Marketing: Grow your audience and reach.
• Making Money: Monetize and scale your website.

Each day includes sessions with industry and business leaders, successful bloggers, and creatives, who will join WordPress.com experts for engaging talks and hands-on demonstrations to help your site grow. Hear from speakers like…

• Deb Perelman, creator of Smitten Kitchen.
• Business strategist Tina Wells.
• Chris Coyier, web developer and CSS expert.
• Amy Chan, founder of Renew Breakup Bootcamp.
• Industry experts from companies including Google, Sandwich, Looka, ShipBob, and WordPress.com.

You’ll also have the opportunity to connect directly with our Happiness Engineers to ask your most pressing support questions. 

To stay accessible to a global audience, we’ll hold the event twice, with live sessions in all regions:

Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Africa — August 11-12, 2020

• 15:00 – 20:00 UTC

Asia Pacific — August 12-13, 2020

• 02:00 – 07:00 UTC

Want to learn more about the event and to take advantage of the early-bird pricing (available through July 31)?

Have you ever written a Twitter thread, and then wished you could turn it into a blog post? You can now do it in seconds.

Writing Twitter threads, also known as tweetstorms, can be a great way to clarify your thoughts: keeping each paragraph under 280 characters forces you to focus on your message.

Threads are great for engagement and sudden bursts of inspiration. But when the thread is done, wouldn’t it be nice to have a quick way to capture the full conversation in one place — one page to read, one link to share, all your thoughts captured on a website you own?

Now, when you embed a tweet that’s part of a larger thread, you’ll see a new “Unroll” button on the block toolbar. Click or tap it to import the entire thread into your post.

Publish the whole thread as one easy-to-read post — and since WordPress has no character limit, add any extra thoughts that have popped up in the meantime!

Originally tweeted by WordPress.com (@wordpressdotcom) on July 17, 2020.

We hope you enjoy this new way to make your WordPress site the canonical place for everything you publish — leave a comment if you have any questions, suggestions for how we can make it easier for you to share content between your site and other platforms, or if you’d like to share a link to a post that started as a Twitter thread!

Podcasting isn’t just for professional broadcasters or celebrities. If you have a passion for a topic — no matter how niche — and want to explore your options beyond blogging and tweeting, consider launching a podcast! All you need to get started is a decent microphone and headset, an internet connection — and our next free webinar to learn the basics.

Date: Thursday, July 23, 2020
Cost: FREE
Time: 8:00 am PDT | 9:00 am MDT | 10:00 am CDT | 11:00 am EDT | 15:00 UTC
Registration link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/5115944218471/WN_DEIBungPRlSs4hIKhN6ezA
Who’s invited: Bloggers, business owners, and anyone else interested in starting a podcast.

Your hosts, expert podcasters and Happiness Engineers Richard and Damianne, have years of experience in podcasting, radio journalism, and of course, helping our users get the most out of their WordPress.com sites. They’ll walk you through the basics of hosting your podcast on WordPress.com and adding it to the most popular podcast directories. They’ll also share some tips and best practices on crafting a successful podcast.

Please note that to host audio files on a WordPress.com site, your site must be on the Premium, Business, or eCommerce plan.

The one-hour webinar will include a 45-minute presentation and 15 minutes of live Q&A. Dustin, one of our veteran Happiness Engineers and another longtime podcaster, will also be on hand to answer questions over Zoom chat during the webinar.

Seats are limited, so register now to save your seat. We look forward to seeing you then!

WordPress 5.5 Beta 2 is now available!

This software is still in development, so it’s not recommended to run this version on a production site. Consider setting up a test site to play with the new version.

You can test WordPress 5.5 beta 2 in two ways:

• Try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (choose the “bleeding edge nightlies” option)
• Or download the beta here (zip).

WordPress 5.5 is slated for release on August 11th, 2020, and we need your help to get there!

Thank you to all of the contributors that tested the beta 1 development release and provided feedback. Testing for bugs is an important part of polishing each release and a great way to contribute to WordPress. Here are some of the changes since beta 1 to pay close attention to while testing.

Some highlights

Since beta 1, 48 bugs have been fixed. Here is a summary of a few changes included in beta 2:

• 19 additional bugs have been fixed in the block editor (see #23903 and #23905).
• The Dashicons icon font has been updated (see #49913).
• Broken widgets stemming from changes in Beta 1 have been fixed (see #50609).
• Query handling when counting revisions has been improved (see #34560).
• An alternate, expanded view was added for wp_list_table (see #49715).
• Some adjustments were made to the handling of default terms for custom taxonomies (see #43517)

Several updates have been made to the block editor. For details, see #23903 and #23905.

Developer notes

WordPress 5.5 has lots of refinements to polish the developer experience. To keep up, subscribe to the Make WordPress Core blog and pay special attention to the developers’ notes for updates on those and other changes that could affect your products.

How to Help

Do you speak a language other than English? Help us translate WordPress into more than 100 languages!

If you think you’ve found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. We’d love to hear from you!

If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on WordPress Trac, where you can also find a list of known bugs.

WordPress 5.5 Beta 1 is now available for testing!

This software is still in development, so it’s not recommended to run this version on a production site. Consider setting up a test site to play with the new version.

You can test the WordPress 5.5 beta in two ways:

• Try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (choose the “bleeding edge nightlies” option)
• Or download the beta here (zip).

The current target for final release is August 11, 2020. This is only five weeks away. Your help is needed to ensure this release is tested properly.

Testing for bugs is an important part of polishing the release during the beta stage and a great way to contribute. Here are some of the big changes and features to pay close attention to while testing.

Block editor: features and improvements

WordPress 5.5 will include ten releases of the Gutenberg plugin, bringing with it a long list of exciting new features. Here are just a few:

• Inline image editing – Crop, rotate, and zoom photos inline right from image blocks.
• Block patterns – Building elaborate pages can be a breeze with new block patterns. Several are included by default.
• Device previews – See how your content will look to users on many different screen sizes.
• End block overwhelm. The new block inserter panel displays streamlined categories and collections. As a bonus, it supports patterns and integrates with the new block directory right out of the box.
• Discover, install, and insert third-party blocks from your editor using the new block directory.
• A better, smoother editing experience with: 
  • Refined drag-and-drop
  • Block movers that you can see and grab
  • Parent block selection
  • Contextual focus highlights
  • Multi-select formatting lets you change a bunch of blocks at once 
  • Ability to copy and relocate blocks easily
  • And, better performance
• An expanded design toolset for themes.
• Now add backgrounds and gradients to more kinds of blocks, like groups, columns, media & text
• And support for more types of measurements — not just pixels. Choose ems, rems, percentages, vh, vw, and more! Plus, adjust line heights while typing, turning writing and typesetting into the seamless act.

In all, WordPress 5.5 brings more than 1,500 useful improvements to the block editor experience. 

To see all of the features for each release in detail check out the release posts: 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, 7.9, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, and 8.4.

Wait! There’s more!

XML sitemaps

XML Sitemaps are now included in WordPress and enabled by default. Sitemaps are essential to search engines discovering the content on your website. Your site’s home page, posts, pages, custom post types, and more will be included to improve your site’s visibility.

Auto-updates for plugins and themes

WordPress 5.5 also brings auto-updates for plugins and themes. Easily control which plugins and themes keep themselves up to date on their own. It’s always recommended that you run the latest versions of all plugins and themes. The addition of this feature makes that easier than ever!

Lazy-loading images

WordPress 5.5 will include native support for lazy-loaded images utilizing new browser standards. With lazy-loading, images will not be sent to users until they approach the viewport. This saves bandwidth for everyone (users, hosts, ISPs), makes it easier for those with slower internet speeds to browse the web, saves electricity, and more.

Better accessibility

With every release, WordPress works hard to improve accessibility. Version 5.5 is no different and packs a parcel of accessibility fixes and enhancements. Take a look:

• List tables now come with extensive, alternate view modes.
• Link-list widgets can now be converted to HTML5 navigation blocks.
• Copying links in media screens and modal dialogs can now be done with a simple click of a button.
• Disabled buttons now actually look disabled.
• Meta boxes can now be moved with the keyboard.
• A custom logo on the front page no longer links to the front page.
• Assistive devices can now see status messages in the Image Editor.
• The shake animation indicating a login failure now respects the user’s choices in the `prefers-reduced-motion` media query.
• Redundant `Error:` prefixes have been removed from error notices.

Miscellaneous Changes

• Plugins and themes can now be updated by uploading a ZIP file.
• More finely grained control of redirect_guess_404_permalink().
• Several packaged external libraries have been updated, including PHPMailer, SimplePie, Twemoji, Masonry, and more!

Keep your eyes on the Make WordPress Core blog for 5.5-related developer notes in the coming weeks, breaking down these and other changes in greater detail.

So far, contributors have fixed more than 350 tickets in WordPress 5.5, including 155 new features and enhancements, and more bug fixes are on the way.

How You Can Help

Do you speak a language other than English? Help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages!

If you think you’ve found a bug, please post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. We would love to hear from you! If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on WordPress Trac. That’s also where you can find a list of known bugs.

Props to @webcommsat, @yvettesonneveld, @estelaris, and @marybaum for compiling/writing this post, @davidbaumwald for editing/proof reading, and @cbringmann, @desrosj, and @andreamiddleton for final review.

June was an exciting month for WordPress! Major changes are coming to the Gutenberg plugin, and WordCamp Europe brought the WordPress community closer together. Read on to learn more and to get all the latest updates. 

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WordPress 5.4.2 released

We said hello to WordPress 5.4.2 on June 10. This security and maintenance release features 17 fixes and 4 enhancements, so we recommend that you update your sites immediately. To download WordPress 5.4.2, visit your Dashboard, click on Updates, then Update Now, or download the latest version directly from WordPress.org. For more information, visit this post, review the full list of changes on Trac, or check out the HelpHub documentation page for version 5.4.2. WordPress 5.4.2 is a short-cycle maintenance release. The next major release will be version 5.5, planned for August 2020. 

Want to get involved in building WordPress Core? Follow the Core team blog, and join the #core channel in the Making WordPress Slack group.

Gutenberg 8.3 and 8.4

The core team launched Gutenberg 8.3 and 8.4 this month, paving the way for some exciting block editor features. Version 8.3 introduced enhancements like a reorganized, more intuitive set of block categories, a parent block selector, an experimental spacing control, and user-controlled link color options. Version 8.4 comes with new image-editing tools and the ability to edit options for multiple blocks.  The block directory search feature that was previously available as an experimental feature, is now enabled for all Gutenberg installations. For full details on the latest versions on these Gutenberg releases, visit these posts about 8.3 and 8.4.

Want to get involved in building Gutenberg? Follow the Core team blog, contribute to Gutenberg on GitHub, and join the #core-editor channel in the Making WordPress Slack group.

WordPress Bumps Minimum Recommended PHP Version to 7.2

In a major update, WordPress has bumped the minimum PHP recommendation to 7.2. The ServeHappy API has been updated to set the minimum acceptable PHP version to 7.2, while the WordPress downloads page recommends 7.3 or newer. Previously, the ServeHappy dashboard widget was showing the upgrade notice to users of PHP 5.6 or lower. This decision comes after discussions with the core Site Health team and the Hosting team, both of which recommended that the upgrade notice be shown to users of PHP <=7.1.

WordCamp Europe 2020 Moved Online

Following the success of a remote WordCamp Spain, WordCamp Europe was held fully online from June 4 to 6. The event drew a record 8,600 signups from people based in 138 countries, along with 2,500 signups for contributor day. WCEU Online also showcased 33 speakers and 40 sponsors, in addition to a Q&A with Matt Mullenweg. You can find the videos of the event in WordPress.tv by following this link, or you can catch the live stream recording of the entire event from the WP Europe YouTube Channel.

Want to get involved with the Community team? Follow the Community blog here, or join them in the #community-events channel in the Making WordPress Slack group. To organize a Meetup or WordCamp, visit the handbook page. 

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Further Reading:

• Josepha Haden (@chanthaboune), the executive director of the WordPress project, published a post that highlights resources on how the global WordPress community can focus on equity to help dismantle racial, societal, and systemic injustice. 
• PHP, the primary programming language in which WordPress is written, celebrated its 25th anniversary this month!
• The Community team is updating the WordCamp code of conduct to address discrimination based on age, caste, social class, and other identifying characteristics.
• The WordPress Core team is promoting more inclusive language by updating all git repositories to use `trunk` instead of `master`. Additionally, the team proposes to rename  “invalid,” “worksforme,” and “wontfix” ticket resolutions to “not-applicable,” “not-reproducible” or “cannot-reproduce,” and “not-implemented,” respectively. 
• The Documentation team is working on an external linking policy and has started a discussion on how to allow linking to trusted sources to benefit users. 
• The Core team has put up a proposal to merge extensible core sitemaps to WordPress core in the 5.5 release. The feature is currently available as a feature plugin.
• WordCamp Denver was held online May 26–27. The event sold over 2,400 tickets and featured 27 speakers and 20 sponsors. You can catch the recorded live stream on the event site.
• The Core team is working on updating the version of jQuery used in WordPress core.

Have a story that we should include in the next “Month in WordPress” post? Please submit it here.

Throughout June, we’ve published a series of Q&As at WordPress Discover featuring members of the Automattic team. These conversations explore personal journeys; reflections on identity; and diversity and inclusion in tech, design, and the workplace. Here are highlights from these interviews.

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“In a World That Wants You to Apologize or Minimize Who You Are, Don’t.”

Gina Gowins is an HR operations magician on the Human League, our global human resources team. In this interview, Gina examines identity and language; communication and trust-building in a distributed, mostly text-based environment; and how her life experiences have informed her work.

I am particularly attached to the term queer as a repurposing of a word that was once used to isolate and disempower people — it was used to call people out as problematically different and other. From my perspective, there is no normal and no other; instead, we are all individual and unique. Identifying as queer allows me to take pride in my own individuality.

Language changes over time, and how we use language shapes our values and thinking. In a culture that is aggressively governed by heteronormative values and where it can still be dangerous and lonely to be LGBTQIA+ — such as the United States, where I live — defining myself as queer is also my small act of defiance. It is a reminder of the consistent fight for acceptance, inclusion, and justice that so many people face, and our inherent value and validity as humans.

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“Reflect What Is Given, and In So Doing Change It a Little”

Echo Gregor is a software engineer on Jetpack’s Voyager team, working on new features that “expand Jetpack’s frontiers.” In this conversation, Echo talks about gender identity, pronouns, and names; and how xer identity and experiences have impacted xer approach to development and work in general.

Earlier in my transition, I called myself “E” sort of as a placeholder while I pondered name things. One late night, on the way home from a party, I had a friend ask if they could call me Echo, as it was the callsign equivalent for “E.” I immediately fell in love with the name, and gradually started using it more and more, until I made it my legal name.

I like that it’s simple and doesn’t have many gendered connotations in the modern world. I also appreciate it’s mythological origin! In the myth, Echo was a mountain nymph cursed by the goddess Hera — to be unable to speak, and only repeat the last words said to her.

I think there’s a lot of parallels in our world to that idea. We’re part of systems that are so much bigger than us that it’s rare any one of us can be loud enough to bring meaningful change, to speak new words. But echoes don’t perfectly repeat things. They reflect what is given, and in so doing change it a little. I like to try and live up to that by bringing a bit of change to the world, not by being the loudest, but by reflecting things back in my own way.

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“Living My Life Freely and Authentically”

Mel Choyce-Dwan is a product designer on the theme team. In this Q&A, Mel tells us how she got involved with the WordPress community through a previous WordCamp, about her observations of tech events as a queer designer, and about the importance of inclusive design.

Show a lot of different kinds of people in your writing and your imagery, and don’t make assumptions. Talk to people from the communities you’re representing if you can, or read about their own experiences from their perspectives. Don’t assume you know better than someone else’s lived experience. When in doubt, talk to people.

And don’t just talk to people about how your product should work, talk about how it shouldn’t work. Talk about how people think others could hurt them using your product. People of marginalized identities often have stories of being harassed, stalked, or abused on the web. We need to think about how our products can be used for harm before — not after — the harassment.

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“Every Person and Voice Has the Opportunity to Be Heard”

Niesha Sweet, a people experience wrangler on the Human League, says she feels like she was destined to work at Automattic. In this final interview, Niesha reflects on her Pride Month traditions and what she finds most rewarding about her HR work.

I would say that we all have to apply an additional level of empathy, understanding, and openness when working together. Just with communication alone — English is not the first language for some Automatticians, and some cultures’ communication style is direct. Assuming positive intent and having an additional level of empathy for one another allows us to effectively communicate with each other, while also appreciating our differences. 

The reward that comes with our diverse workforce is that every person and voice has the opportunity to be heard. Impostor syndrome is real, so some Automatticians may not feel as though they can share their ideas with anyone at the company, but we truly can. Our level of diversity is truly outside of what the typical company is aiming to achieve. That’s not to say we’re not looking to hire more diverse Automatticians, or increase our workforce with non-US hires, but we’re not limited by age, sexual orientation, race, and gender identity. Diversity has a different meaning in a lot of the countries where we have Automatticians, and that alone is rewarding. 

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Learn more about diversity and inclusion at Automattic. We’re currently hiring — apply to work with us!