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WordPress 5.8 Beta 2 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 it.

You can test the WordPress 5.8 Beta 2 in two ways:

• Install/activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (select the Bleeding edge channel and the Beta/RC Only stream)
• Direct download the beta version here (zip).

The current target for the final release is July 20, 2021. That’s just five weeks away, so your help is vital to ensure that the final release is as good as it can be.

Some Highlights

Since Beta 1, 26 bugs have been fixed. Here is a summary of some of the included changes:

• Block Editor: Remove bundled block patterns and support the patterns directory. (#53246)
• Block Editor: Add a type property to allow Core to identify the source of the editor styles. (#53175)
• Build/Test Tools: Adds some tests for Quick Draft section in Dashboard. (#52905)
• Build/Test Tools: Replaced @babel/polyfill with core-js/stable. (#52941)
• Coding Standards: Further update the code for bulk menu items deletion to better follow WordPress coding standards. (#21603)
• External Libraries: Update Underscore to version 1.13.1. (#45785)
• General: A number of block editor, template mode and widget screen related fixes. (#51149)
• Login and Registration: Improve the unknown username error message. (#52915)
• Media: Restore AJAX response data shape in media library. (#50105)
• Site Health: Display a list of file formats supported by the GD library. (#53022)
• Twemoji: It’s the new one! (#52852)

How You Can Help

Watch the Make WordPress Core blog for 5.8-related developer notes in the coming weeks, which will break down these and other changes in greater detail.

So far, contributors have fixed 214 tickets in WordPress 5.8, including 87 new features and enhancements, and more bug fixes are on the way.

Do some testing!

Testing for bugs is a vital part of polishing the release during the beta stage and a great way to contribute.

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 @chanthaboune for revision, @webcommsat, @youknowriad, @jorbin, and @jeffpaul for proofreading, and @cbringmann for final edits!

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Install won’t you please
WordPress 5-8 Beta 2?
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