Due to a significant reduction in the number of active contributors to the WordPress project, development on its core has stalled, prompting the project’s leadership to reassess its plans. As a result, WordPress 6.8, set for release in 2025, will be the final major update for the year, with only minor updates slated for subsequent releases.
This change in release strategy marks a shift in the platform’s development pace, signaling that future major releases may be limited to one per year, depending on the availability of contributors. While this decision has not been officially confirmed for 2025 and beyond, it highlights concerns about the sustainability of the current contributor base.
The decrease in contributor engagement is also evident in the Gutenberg project, where the development of new features, including new blocks and user experience enhancements, has slowed dramatically since January. This decline suggests that the platform is losing momentum in delivering new capabilities and innovations at the pace it once did.
One potential benefit of slowing development is the opportunity to focus on automating release processes. The WordPress team believes that by streamlining these processes, future releases will be faster and require less manual effort. However, the specifics of this automation remain unclear.
To move forward, WordPress plans to focus on its canonical plugins, including Preferred Languages, two-factor authentication (2FA), and performance tools. These plugins, which are maintained by WordPress.org, are seen as a potential avenue for improving core functionality. However, there are challenges with these plugins, particularly a lack of meaningful user feedback. Currently, the only available feedback metric is the number of active installations, which does not provide sufficient insight into user interaction or the perceived value of these features. To address this, WordPress is considering introducing telemetry and exploring new methods to gather valuable user feedback.
In addition to user feedback, there is concern about the limited promotion of canonical plugins. Many users are unaware of their existence, and there is no clear way for them to discover these plugins. To improve visibility, WordPress is considering promoting them through the WordPress.org News blog, State of the Word presentations, and possibly the Tools page in the admin dashboard.
Despite these challenges, WordPress is encouraging contributors to continue working on clearing the backlog of over 13,000 unresolved issues in the Gutenberg and Core Trac systems. While smaller updates will continue to be released, they will be focused on bug fixes rather than introducing new features.
Ultimately, WordPress 6.8 will be the last major version of 2025, but minor core updates will continue throughout the year, albeit at a slower pace. To maintain ongoing discussions and adapt to the evolving situation, the WordPress team will hold quarterly contributor strategy meetings to reassess priorities and progress.
Related Topics
