#248- WordPress Plans For Three Major Releases In 2026, WordPress 6.9 Releasing Today

Issue #248 | December 2, 2025 | Reading time: 19 mins

Hello!

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving 🦃.

This week on The WP Week Newsletter, we cover the upcoming WordPress 6.9 set to release later today, WordPress’ plan to return to three major releases from next year, the new AI Experiments plugin, WordCamp Asia 2026 call for Wapuu designs new projects, and more.

Also, are you planning to participate in the Advent of Code?

Don’t forget to subscribe and listen to the podcast version of this newsletter, where you can hear more details and discussions about these topics and more.

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See you next week!

Team WP-CONTENT.CO

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🗣️TALK OF THE TOWN

WordPress to return to three major releases in 2026

Jonathan Desrosiers summarized key discussions from the core committers meeting highlighting that WordPress plans to return to a cadence of three major releases in 2026 with the first likely in March or April. The releases will focus on features postponed from 6.9, including template activation, the tabs block, and client-side abilities for the Abilities API.

📰 WORDPRESS & AROUND

All the updates around WordPress and its closely related technologies

WordPress AI Team announces first public release of AI Experiments plugin

The WordPress AI team has released version 0.1.0 of its new AI Experiments plugin, marking the first public milestone for a project designed to test emerging AI-powered features before they are considered for WordPress core. The AI Experiments Plugin is part of the AI Building Blocks for WordPress initiative introduced earlier this year.

WordPress 6.9 Release Candidate 4: The RC4 was released yesterday and fixes since RC3 include issues with async upload fields, WP-Cron behavior, Media Library button styling, REST API error handling, and a new ability to hide blocks. The WordPress 6.9 Field Guide is also now available and outlines major developer features and breaking changes in the upcoming WordPress 6.9 release, introducing over 400 Core updates with 125+ enhancements and 250+ bug fixes, featuring improved block-level collaboration with notes, direct drag-and-drop, hideable blocks, and so on. The release is also happening on December 2, 2025, the same day as the State of the Word.
MCP Adapter v0.3.0 released by WordPress AI Team: The official integration for the Model Context Protocol (MCP), introduces a unified observability model, a new HTTP transport layer, WP_Error-based error handling, standardized hook names, and improved documentation.
WordPress Importer now migrates URLs automatically: Adam Zieliński announced that the WordPress Importer now supports automatic migration of URLs during content imports, addressing a long-standing challenge in site migrations. The tool accurately updates URLs across multiple formats, including HTML, CSS, JSON, and punycode-encoded domains, while preserving unrelated text, email addresses, and references to other domains.
Rian Rietveld shared the latest update to the WP Accessibility Docs: The WP Accessibility project updated wpaccessibility.org with a new design, improved search functionality, and a Wapuu mascot. Contributor feedback from WordCamp Netherlands highlighted the need for a clearer explanation of accessibility’s importance. New and updated documentation covers accessibility myths, web form best practices, and required field guidelines. An accessibility audit is scheduled for early December 2025, with plans to ensure WCAG 2.2 AA compliance and continue expanding documentation.
Wordfence Intelligence Weekly WordPress vulnerability report (November 17, 2025 to November 23, 2025): Last week, there were 140 vulnerabilities disclosed in 129 WordPress plugins and 1 WordPress theme.
WooCommerce 10.4: Pre-release updates: The upcoming version, releasing on December 9, 2025, introduces accessibility improvements to product carousels and emails, HPOS Datastore caching as a standard feature, block enhancements including full Add to Cart variations support, flexible Featured Category/Product blocks, an Interactivity API-powered Mini Cart, and REST API lazy loading for faster performance.
OpenAI shares details on Mixpanel security incident: The incident affected limited analytics data for some API users and not ChatGPT users. No chats, API keys, passwords, or payment details were exposed. The affected data included names, emails, coarse location, browser info, and referring sites. OpenAI has removed Mixpanel from production, notified impacted users, and strengthened vendor security reviews. Users are advised to stay alert for potential phishing attempts.
EU Plan to simplify GDPR targets AI training and cookie consent: The European Commission has proposed a “Digital Omnibus” package that would relax parts of the GDPR, the AI Act, and Europe’s cookie rules in the name of competitiveness and simplification.

🔧 TIP OF THE WEEK
Load CSS & JS the Right Way

Never hardcode <script> or <link> tags.
Use wp_enqueue_scripts:

function theme_scripts() { wp_enqueue_style('main', get_template_directory_uri().'/assets/css/main.css'); wp_enqueue_script('main', get_template_directory_uri().'/assets/js/main.js', ['jquery'], null, true); } add_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', 'theme_scripts');

This prevents conflicts and improves performance.

💵 INVESTMENTS, ACQUISITIONS & PARTNERSHIPS

Yoast teams up with Microsoft to make the open web AI-friendly: Yoast is collaborating with Microsoft’s NLWeb project to help WordPress websites communicate clearly with AI systems. The integration aims to make content AI-readable while maintaining transparency, trust, and privacy.

👥 COMMUNITY NEWS

Updates and News from the WordPress Community

WP Gives A Hand returns for 2025

It is an initiative where businesses, freelancers, and creators donate a portion of their revenue to causes they care about. Running this year from December 22–28, the movement encourages participants to publicly share their donations, raise awareness for charities, and inspire collective impact.

WordCamp Asia 2026 opens call for Wapuu designs: The organizers are inviting designers, artists, and WordPress fans to create a Mumbai-themed Wapuu, celebrating the city’s energy, culture, and daily life. Submissions are open from November 25, 2025, to January 15, 2026, and the winning design will be featured across event merchandise, banners, and digital platforms. The team has also introduced a Pro Pass.
The State of Open Source Software in 2025: The report highlights that open source software (OSS) has become mission-critical across enterprise technology stacks, including operating systems, AI/ML, cloud, and web development. Organizations recognize OSS’s benefits improved productivity, innovation, reduced costs, and better workplace satisfaction but governance and security practices lag behind adoption.
GoDaddy expands Airo.ai with new AI agents: GoDaddy has added six new AI agents to its Airo.ai platform, enhancing marketing, operations, and website management for small businesses. Agents include tools for customer communication, social media planning, appointment scheduling, domain setup and protection, and access to human experts via a Do-It-For-You service.
Docker Manager for Hostinger VPS launched: This is a web-based tool that lets you deploy, start, stop, and monitor Docker containers on your VPS with just a few clicks, no command line needed.
A quick preview of Promptless WP: Breon Williams on X showcased how a Word doc can become a WordPress page in minutes using Promptless WP
Tomzur on Elementor’s ongoing growth: Tomzur highlighted just how widely Elementor is used, noting that the last time they checked, 25–30% of the sites Kinsta hosts have it installed. Building on that, Miriam Schwab added that W3Techs shows Elementor powering 30.3% of all WordPress sites and an impressive 13.1% of the entire internet.
WordPress Coding Standards 3.3.0 released: This adds support for newer PHP features, updates sniffs for WordPress changes up to WP 6.9, raises the minimum PHP requirement to 7.2, improves accuracy across security and database checks, and includes fixes, cleanup, and many more improvements.
WPML 4.8.6 released: This release ensures compatibility with the upcoming WordPress 6.9, which introduces a breaking change in how cache keys are generated. The update prevents problems such as pages loading in the wrong language, 404 errors, broken links, incorrect SEO metadata, and failures in custom post types or ACF fields.
WP Consent API 2.0.0 released: This release introduces a new service-level consent system along with other improvements and a security fix.
Borlabs cookie users must update before WordPress 6.9 release: Warren Laine-Naida warns that WordPress 6.9 introduces a breaking change to how JavaScript modules are processed. Because older Borlabs Cookie 3.x versions are incompatible with this update, users need to upgrade the plugin to version 3.3.20 before installing WordPress 6.9 to ensure their site continues functioning properly.
WP-interface package: Felix Arntz shared that, after receiving frequent questions about the Gutenberg-style interface in his AI Services plugin, he has now extracted and released that UI component so other WordPress developers can easily use it in their own plugins.
Gato AI Translations for Polylang v15.2 adds automatic internal link: The release introduces automatic replacement of internal links when translating posts, partial content translation, support for new Gutenberg blocks like GenerateBlocks and Yoast SEO, and integration with the latest ChatGPT 5.1 model.
Wise for WooCommerce plugin arriving soon: Rodolfo Melogli shared an update after listening to the “Wise Business” webinar, hinting that the Wise for WooCommerce plugin may be arriving in January.
PushEngage launches multi-channel chat widget for WordPress: The widget lets users connect with businesses through 22 communication channels including WhatsApp, SMS, Instagram, phone, email, and more. The upgrade brings advanced targeting, customizable layouts, team-ready agent tools, behavior-based triggers, and a new visual builder.
Ryan McCue explained how a UK budget leak may have happened due to WordPress file handling: The UK budget was accidentally leaked early, possibly because WordPress stores uploaded files in predictable, publicly accessible locations. The OBR’s use of WordPress and the Download Monitor plugin may have made sensitive documents easy to access.
Ben LayerWP shared his WordPress writing rates and services: Ben LayerWP created a dedicated page to clearly show how much he charges for WordPress-focused writing, making pricing transparent for the many people who ask, while offering authentic human sounding content backed by long term industry experience and simple direct communication.
Katie Keith explains her yearly routine of cancelling and repurchasing her Easy Digital Downloads subscription during Black Friday: She shared how she saves €389.35 each year by cancelling her subscription and buying it again at the Black Friday discount. She notes that the cancellation process is still long and uses tactics to convince users to stay, though it is less deceptive than in previous years. She also mentions that the upselling of additional plugins appears more prominent this year.
Introducing PageLM: An open source AI-powered education platform that transforms study materials into interactive learning experiences, inspired by NotebookLM.

🚀 NEW PROJECTS

“I love this (Brian Coords’ Feeds – WordPress RSS Reader Plugin)😍.”
— Birgit Pauli-Haack, WordPress developer advocate, curator at Gutenberg Times

Feeds – WordPress RSS Reader plugin: A self-hosted RSS reader living natively inside the WordPress Admin Dashboard. Creator Brian Coords is inviting users to beta test his plugin.
Marketing Boutique, launched by Michelle Frechette: It offers coaching, consulting, downloads, and other services to support business growth. Drawing on her MBA, 15 years of WordPress and tech experience, and public speaking expertise, she aims to help clients discover their voices, improve marketing, and embrace DEIB principles.
All new PistonUI: A widget-packed addon for Elementor that helps you build fast, visually rich pages without coding. It includes hero sections, interactive elements (like accordions, sticky content, scroll-reveal cards), media widgets, content grids, and more.
WP Gems project: This is an automated platform that showcases clever and useful WordPress plugins you might not know about. It scans new and recently updated plugins daily, filters out spam, and surfaces promising finds without any manual curation or sponsorship, helping users discover creative solutions within the WordPress community.
WPMaven launching soon: An upcoming AI assistant, by the makers of Figma to WordPress, designed specifically for WordPress, helping users launch websites, generate content, manage plugins, automate marketing, and monitor performance with simple prompts. The waitlist is now open.
Spline animation plugin: The plugin, created by Anas Niazi, it lets users create interactive 3D animations on their websites without coding. It offers drag-and-drop integration, customizable animations for 3D model layers, and multiple triggers like mouse movement, clicks, hover, and page load events.
Ozi Image Alt Tag Fixer: The plugin created by Simmi A, automatically fixes missing image alt tags using smart rules.
Unleash WP Vol 1 launched: The new resource by Benjamin Zekavica offers practical guidance for managing WordPress projects with clarity and efficiency. Drawing on over 16 years of development experience and contributions to WordPress Core, the book covers workflows, automation, scalable environments, and controlled deployments.

🔖 INTERESTING READS & PODCASTS

More posts and podcasts from the WordPress Community you don’t want to miss

Nick Diego and Ryan Welcher walk through the biggest features coming to WordPress 6.9, including block-level Notes, the new Command Palette, and early groundwork for upcoming AI features.
In a quick 10-minute overview, Pascal Claro covered what’s coming to WordPress 6.9.
Jonathan Bossenger reviewed the Block Bindings improvements coming in WordPress 6.9, including updates to date and image blocks and new options for custom sources.
This week on WP Tavern Jukebox, Saumya Majumder, lead software engineer at BigScoots, discusses the recent Cloudflare outage, explaining its impact on WordPress and the web.
What happens when a contributor day focuses on a handful of Make WP teams with no clear projects? Taco Verdonschot reflects on WordCamp Pisa and shows how this approach can leave new contributors underutilized.
Think WordPress is just a content editor? Think again. Bryce Culp explains how the Gutenberg Block Editor has evolved into a full React-based platform, letting developers build faster, cleaner, and scalable sites with reusable blocks.
Ever wondered what it’s like to attend WordCamp Netherlands as a regular? Remkus de Vries reflects on stepping back after 15+ years of organizing, feeling pride, nostalgia, and renewed energy for new projects like Scanfully and his courses at Within WP.
Struggling with WordPress plugin fatigue and SEO tool overload? Listen as Kurt and Toby break down the pitfalls of popular plugins, the power of conversion optimization, and why small businesses need security maintenance plans on The WP Minute’s Agency Action podcast.
Curious how in-person WooCommerce events can transform your business? Listen as Eric Karkovack talks with Rodolfo Melogli, founder of Business Bloomer and organizer of the Checkout Summit, about his blogging journey, the evolution of WooCommerce, and the power of networking on The WP Minute+ podcast.

🛠 GUIDE ZONE – HOWTO’S and MORE

Handpicked fresh guides from WordPress circle

How to manage the admin-wide Command Palette in WordPress 6.9: From DLX Plugins
Scaling typeface gracefully with fluid typography: From Kinsta

📆 SAVE THE DATES

Do not miss a WordPress event ever again

WordCamp Nepal 2026 on January 23-24: The early bird tickets are now available, and the call for sponsors is now open.
WordCamp Asia 2026 on April 9-11: The call for Wapuu designs is now open, and the call for speakers is also open. The call for sponsors and media partners is also now open.
SomeConf 2026 on April 22-23: The tickets are now available.
Checkout Summit 2026 on April 23-24, 2026: The call for sponsors is now open. The early bird tickets are now available.
WordCamp Europe 2026 on June 4-6: The event is in the early planning stages, and the venue will be the ICE Kraków Congress Centre Kraków, Poland.

🎁 WORDPRESS DEALS OF THE WEEK

Again, these are the best deals of the week, handpicked by yours!

EXCLUSIVE DEALS

Black Friday and Cyber Monday WordPress Deals 2025 are now live.
4 Months free offer on hosting plans of WP Engine (Coupon Code- FREEDOMTOCREATE)
10% off on monthly & annual plans at SureTriggers (Coupon Code- WPCONTENT10)
15% off yearly plans at Videvo (Coupon Code – WPV15)

MORE DEALS

30% off for 4 months on Cloudways + 10 Free migrations ( Promo code- TREAT25).
Up to 50% off on BookingPress plugin
Up to 50% off on Paid Membership Pro plans.
Up to $100 OFF Essential Blocks PRO plugin.
50% off 3 months on Liquid Web’s Bare Metal server hosting
20% off for Constellation plugin
50% off on Vecteezy monthly subscription till Oct 24, 2025.
7% off for the lifetime plan for the Modern Cart for WooCommerce plugin.
33% off for the Uncanny Automator plugin.