The current release in progress is WordPress 6.9, expected for release on December 2nd, 2025. This release is currently in Release Candidate A beta version of software with the potential to be a final product, which is ready to release unless significant bugs emerge. status. The development schedule for WordPress 6.9 is available, though still potentially subject to change in minor ways.
About Release Schedules
Releases are broken up into three phases: alpha, beta, and release candidate.
alpha: Development of new features and enhancements, broad tasks, bug fixes.beta: Refinement of new features, but no additional features can be added. Bug fixes can continue.release candidate: Continue refinement of new features, bug fixes can only be merged if they are fixes to new features. Double committer sign off required on all commits.
WordPress 6.9 Work in Progress
Key Goals – Core Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.
During the 6.9 release cycle, we’re continuing to work on the group of accessibility tasks opened in the past several years. These tasks have had considerable work done already, but need further research to identify what work remains. (See also the closed accessibility tasks: these are completed.)
Moved to 7.0: We’re also working on an older task that has not previously had work done to implement improved accessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) in core admin notices, following up from the implementation of new admin notice functions that are handling output and markup of these notices in core.
Key Goals – Editor
As the editor team considers the addition of new blocks, we’re actively testing and consulting on these new features to ensure that anything added to the editor is as accessible as possible.
Some of the blocks recently addressed include:
- Icons Block
- Accordion Block – Shipping in 6.9
- Tabs Block
- Lightbox support in Galleries
- Notes (formerly Block Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. Comments) – Shipping in 6.9