WordPress is continually under development. Currently, work is underway on Phase 2 of the Gutenberg project. The Gutenberg project is a reimagination of the way we manage content on the web. Its goal is to broaden access to web presence, which is a foundation of successful modern businesses. Phase 1 was the new block editor, which was released in WordPress 5.0, you can see that in action here. In 2021 we’re focusing on merging full site editing (Phase 2) into WordPress which brings block editing to the entire site, not just posts and pages. For more information on full site editing, its components, and other active feature work, check out the Feature Projects Overview page.
For 2021 the project has some big picture goals, as outlined in this post:
- Full site editing: Bring into the Gutenberg plugin, and subsequently WordPress Core, the ability to edit all elements of a site using Gutenberg blocks. This will include all in-progress features designed to help existing users transition to Gutenberg as well. Scope/Timeline: MVP in the plugin by April 2021, v1 in Core by WordPress 5.8.
- LearnWP: Enable WordPress skills-leveling by providing workshops, pre-recorded trainings, and self-serve learning opportunities on learn.wordpress.org. Scope/Timeline: regularly publish new workshops and lesson plans, maintain a high pass rate on workshop quizzes to establish learner success and comprehension.
- Contributor tools: Decrease the manual overhead of maintenance work for teams through better tooling. Scope/Timeline: Varied, and pending additional testing.
Want to get involved? Head on over to Make WordPress! We can always use more people to help translate, design, document, develop, and market WordPress.
Currently planned releases
Here are the current planned releases, and links to their respective milestones in our issue tracker. Any projected dates are for discussion and planning purposes, and will be firmed up as we get closer to release.
| Version | Planned |
|---|---|
| 6.0 (Trac) | 2022 |
For more information on the planned release schedule, please read the Make WordPress Core post about the tentative release calendar for 2020-2021.
The month prior to a release new features are frozen and the focus is entirely on ensuring the quality of the release by eliminating bugs and profiling the code for any performance issues.
You can see an overview of past releases on our history page.
Long term roadmap
Phase 2 of Gutenberg won’t be finished when it’s merged into WordPress. The work to gather feedback and iterate based on user needs will continue after WordPress 5.8 is released. As a reminder, these are the four phases outlined in the Gutenberg project:
The Four Phases of Gutenberg
- Easier Editing — Already available in WordPress, with ongoing improvements
- Customization — Full Site editing, Block Patterns, Block Directory, Block based themes
- Collaboration — A more intuitive way to co-author content
- Multi-lingual — Core implementation for Multi-lingual sites