WordPress 6.8 Features in Action + 6.9 Sneak Peek
Welcome to this WordPress.org Online Workshop!
Maruti Mohanty
Welcome!
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Before we begin.
Please note, this session will be ● recorded and posted on WordPress.tv
Let’s have fun and �learn from each other!
WordPress 6.8
WordPress 6.8 Features in Action + 6.9 Sneak Peek
WordPress 6.8 Features in Action + 6.9 Sneak Peek
Maruti Mohanty
WordPress 6.8: Feature Highlights and Improvements
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Updated core blocks
Editor Improvements
Performance and security
Updates for developers
WordPress 6.9
WordPress 6.8 Features in Action + 6.9 Sneak Peek
WordPress 6.8 Features in Action + 6.9 Sneak Peek
Updated core blocks
The Query Loop Block
WordPress 6.8 introduces an option to ignore sticky posts for “ignoring” the status of sticky.
This means that developers and users can now prevent sticky posts from automatically appearing at the top of the result set, aligning their placement with the query’s inherent sorting logic.
WordPress 6.8 Features in Action + 6.9 Sneak Peek
Updated core blocks
Query Total Block
WordPress 6.8 introduced a new block called Query Total, enhancing the flexibility of the Query Loop block.
This new block displays the total number of results within a query, making it easier for users to showcase the number of posts retrieved by a query loop.
WordPress 6.8 Features in Action + 6.9 Sneak Peek
Updated core blocks
Set Image blocks as featured images
A new option allows you to set an image as featured from the block toolbar Options dropdown. If the post has a featured image already set, then the user can change it from the block toolbar as well.
This will streamline your workflow by eliminating the need to set the same image in two places when you want to feature an image that’s already in your content.
WordPress 6.8 Features in Action + 6.9 Sneak Peek
Updated core blocks
Gallery block refinements
WordPress 6.8 brings the lightbox effect to the Gallery block. The feature is the same as it already works for individual Image blocks.
The Gallery block now features a new option called “Enlarge on click.” When enabled, users can open all images in a lightbox gallery with a single click.
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Updated core blocks
Editor Improvements
Performance and security
Updates for developers
WordPress 6.9
WordPress 6.8 Features in Action + 6.9 Sneak Peek
WordPress 6.8 Features in Action + 6.9 Sneak Peek
Editor Improvements
Style Book improvements
In WordPress 6.8, the Style Book has a new, structured layout and clearer labels, making it even easier to edit colors, typography, and almost all your site styles in one place.
This release also adds a new way to access the Style Book directly from the Styles menu item in the Editor sidebar.
Style book is added to classic themes as well.
WordPress 6.8 Features in Action + 6.9 Sneak Peek
Editor Improvements
New commands in the Command Palette
WordPress 6.8 enhances the Command Palette with two powerful new commands that streamline your workflow:
The Add New Page command lets you create a new page from anywhere in the Site Editor, significantly speeding up the content creation process. You won’t have to navigate through multiple screens to start working on new content anymore.
The Open Site Editor command offers one-click navigation to the Site Editor from Page or Post Editor screens accessed via the WP Admin menu. This makes switching between editing contexts much faster and more intuitive.
These commands can be accessed by pressing cmd+K on Mac or ctrl+K on Windows; this shortcut will open the Command Palette from any editor screen that supports the palette.
WordPress 6.8 Features in Action + 6.9 Sneak Peek
Editor Improvements
Reset button: start fresh with one click
WordPress 6.8 introduces a convenient reset button across various design controls. Thanks to the inline reset button added to all color controls, you can now reset colors for blocks and global styles with a single click.
This same reset functionality extends to the Shadow panel and Duotone settings.
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Updated core blocks
Editor Improvements
Performance and security
Updates for developers
WordPress 6.9
WordPress 6.8 Features in Action + 6.9 Sneak Peek
WordPress 6.8 Features in Action + 6.9 Sneak Peek
Performance and security
Speculative Loading in WordPress 6.8
WordPress 6.8 introduces speculative loading, which can lead to near-instant page load times by loading URLs before the user navigates to them.
Speculative loading is a website performance optimization technique that allows pages or resources to be prefetched or pre rendered before the user accesses them, reducing load times and improving the user experience.
Before 6.8, WordPress users who wanted to add speculative loading to their WordPress websites could use the Speculative Loading plugin from the WordPress Performance Team. This
WordPress 6.8 Features in Action + 6.9 Sneak Peek
Performance and security
Bcrypt for password hashing
WordPress 6.8 will change the algorithm used by WordPress to protect users’ passwords. WordPress currently uses phpass, which is not considered the best in terms of modern security. WordPress 6.8 switches to the more secure bcrypt encryption algorithm.
The main difference is that bcrypt takes more time and resources to crack, making cyber-attacks less effective.
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Updated core blocks
Editor Improvements
Performance and security
Updates for developers
WordPress 6.9
WordPress 6.8 Features in Action + 6.9 Sneak Peek
WordPress 6.8 Features in Action + 6.9 Sneak Peek
Updates for developers
Multiple block type registration
WordPress 6.8 introduces a more efficient block type registration with the new function wp_register_block_types_from_metadata_collection().
This function allows developers to register multiple block types simultaneously, improving performance and streamlining block development.
WordPress 6.8 Features in Action + 6.9 Sneak Peek
Updates for developers
Interactivity API updates
The Interactivity API gets several improvements. Before WordPress 6.8, when someone interacts with a page, all the related tasks happen at once, which can slow things down if they take longer than 50 milliseconds—something.
To fix this, WordPress 6.8 introduces asynchronous handlers that allow to run these tasks asynchronously by default
WordPress 6.8 Features in Action + 6.9 Sneak Peek
Updates for developers
A performance warning for developers
Starting with WordPress 6.8, a new warning will appear in the developer console when SCRIPT_DEBUG is enabled if useSelect is called too often or inefficiently. More specifically, the warning displays if useSelect is triggered on every render (update) of a component without proper optimization
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Updated core blocks
Editor Improvements
Performance and security
Updates for developers
WordPress 6.9
WordPress 6.8 Features in Action + 6.9 Sneak Peek
WordPress 6.8 Features in Action + 6.9 Sneak Peek
WordPress 6.9
Release Date��WordPress 6.9 is scheduled for official release on December 2, 2025. �WordPress 6.9 Beta 2 is now ready for testing!��Expanded template management��Users can now create multiple templates for a single page, separate theme and custom templates, and even draft new templates before publishing them.��Block-level comments (Notes)
One of the most exciting additions in WordPress 6.9 is Notes, previously known as Block Comments. This new feature introduces real collaboration to WordPress by allowing editors, writers, designers, and other users to leave comments directly on specific blocks within the editor.
Hide blocks on the frontend
Another long-awaited improvement is the ability to hide blocks from the frontend while keeping them visible in the editor.
Questions?
Thank you!
Appreciate you’all joining us today.
A special thank you to our co-host - Muhibul Haque!��See you at the next one!