WordPress 5.9 will be ready for release on 25th January 2022 with new block editor features, PHP update, and introduction of Twenty Twenty-Two Theme. WP 5.9 was initially scheduled to be released on 14th January 2022 before the dates were revised to 25 January 2022.
WordPress 5.9 Release and development cycle
WordPress started working on version 5.9 on 30th June 2021. On 30th November WordPress 5.9 Beta 1 was released followed by Beta 2 (7th December), Beta 3 (14th December), and Beta 4 (21 December). The first release candidate was on 4th January 2022.
On 24th January 2022 WordPress 5.9 will be released for a Dry run before being officially released on 25th January 2022.
What is new in WordPress 5.9?
Some of the new features and changes available in WP 5.9 are;
- Twenty Twenty-Two Theme: WordPress 5.9 comes with Twenty Twenty-Two theme. The theme is compatible with WP 5.9 and is an ideal candidate for testing or troubleshooting if you are encountering errors in your old or premium theme after upgrading to 5.9. Automattic will also be releasing a new minimalist theme for writers called Livro.
- Editor (Full site editing): WordPress 5.9 now makes it possible to change your website styles inside the Editor section without editing theme files. No writing of codes to style your site. The website styling experience that you will get with Editor is almost similar to what is offered by page builders like Elementor.
- URL Preview: If you have a URL in your block editor and you hoover a mouse over it, a preview of the page will be shown (similar to the post previews you see in category or archive pages)
- Load time: WordPress 5.9 comes with some changes to improve page load time. We had previously written about the same.
- A few changes for compatibility with PHP 8.0 and 8.1.
WordPress developers will have a busy January and February updating their plugins and themes for compatibility and responding to support questions.
To view all the new features, go to WordPress releases and select the latest version.
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