Roadmap

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 were 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 2022 the project has some big picture goals, as outlined in this post:

1. Drive adoption of the new WordPress editor – Following WordPress 5.9, our focus will be driving user adoption by making full site editing (and its tools) easy to find and use.
   1. For the CMS – Get high quality feedback, ensure actionable tickets come from the feedback with collaboration from design as needed, and ship code that solves our users’ most pressing needs.
      1. Invite more users and extenders to participate in the FSE Outreach program (10–12 calls for testing).
      2. Host regular design-driven user testing (one test a week).
   2. For the Community – Share our knowledge and resources in a way that inspires and motivates our users to action.
      1. Invite more users and extenders to augment their skills through LearnWP.
      2. Turn routine support issues into new evergreen content (10–15 pieces of canonical content using Learn, Docs, WordPress.org, etc).
      3. Translate high impact user-facing content across Rosetta sites (15–20 locales).
      4. Host audience-specific WordPress events (10–12 by common language, interest, or profession).
   3. For the Ecosystem – Prioritize full site editing tools and content across the ecosystem for all users.
      1. Highlight block themes and plugins in the directories.
      2. Provide tools/training to learn how to build block themes.
      3. Improve the block developer experience.
2. Support open source alternatives for all site-building necessities – Provide access to open source elements needed to get a site up and running.
   1. For the CMS
      1. Update new user onboarding flow to match modern standards.
      2. Integrate Openverse into wp-admin.
      3. Integrate Photo Directory submissions into wp-admin.
      4. Pattern creator
   2. For the Community
      1. Ship LearnWP learning opportunities (1 workshop/week, 6 courses/year)
      2. Increase the number of social learning spaces (4 SLSs/week)
      3. Block theme contribution drive (500 block themes in the repo).
   3. For the Ecosystem
      1. Update the theme previewer to support block themes.
      2. Update the content & design across WP.org.
      3. Update Polyglots tools to improve the translation experience.
      4. Create a developer-focused communications site.
3. Open Source stewards: Iterate on WordPress’ open source methodologies to guide and sustain long term success for WordPress as well as the overall open source community that we are part of.
   1. For All
      1. 5ftF program expansion
      2. Recruitment of future leaders in the community
      3. Onboarding of current leaders in the community
      4. Upstream contributions to other OS projects (PHP, JS, Matrix, or the like)
      5. WordPress Project maintenance
      6. Ancillary programs
4. Bonus: Preparations for WordPress’ 20th birthday

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.

For more information on the planned release schedule, please read the Make WordPress Core post about the proposed major release timing for 2022.

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

1. Easier Editing — Already available in WordPress, with ongoing improvements
2. Customization — Full Site editing, Block Patterns, Block Directory, Block based themes
3. Collaboration — A more intuitive way to co-author content
4. Multi-lingual — Core implementation for Multi-lingual sites