#249- WordPress 6.9 Released, SOTW 2025 Recap, Doc Team’s New Proposal

Issue #249 | December 9, 2025 | Reading time: 20 mins

Hello!

This week on The WP Week Newsletter, we cover the release of WordPress 6.9, State of the Word 2025 recap, the WordPress Training Team is temporarily removing Coffee Hours for the upcoming month, new projects, and more.

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 6.9 “Gene” released

The second major release of this year has arrived and brings new features like Notes, Abilities API, option to hide blocks and much more.

A community member on Reddit pointed out how, after the WordPress 6.9 update, WordPress doesn’t send any emails. The issue will be fixed in WordPress 6.9.1 as a fix is being worked up on.

📰 WORDPRESS & AROUND

All the updates around WordPress and its closely related technologies

State of the Word 2025 Recap: From global reach to empowering next-generation

WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg delivered the annual State of the Word address on December 2, 2025, in San Francisco, a milestone year that featured the first-ever live release of a new WordPress version during the event.

During the event, Matt stated the approach that WordPress is taking with AI as, “ Empowering, not replacing people”.

WordPress Training Team announced the temporary removal of Coffee Hours: The WordPress Training Team is temporarily removing Coffee Hours for the upcoming month to focus limited admin resources on organizing and delivering workshops, which require more coordination. Coffee Hours will return once additional team admins are available to help facilitate them.
WordPress Playground: 2025 Year in review: Adam Zieliński recaps a transformative year for WordPress Playground, highlighting near-universal plugin support, major performance boosts, expanded PHP and MySQL capabilities, and powerful developer tools like the CLI, Blueprints editor, and browser-based previews.
AI as a WordPress Fundamental: Jason Adams envisions AI becoming a fundamental part of WordPress, much like the database, enabling both users and developers to take its presence for granted. By integrating AI directly into hosting plans and providing developer-friendly tools like the WP AI Client and Abilities API, plugins can effortlessly leverage AI for features such as generating alt text, images, or workflows.
New coding standard proposal to allow the use of the PHP short echo tag: Rodrigo Primo proposes updating the WordPress Coding Standards to allow the PHP short echo tag for single statements. Since PHP 5.4, this tag is always available, making it safe to use, and it provides a more concise syntax for template output.
WordPress Documentation Team’s proposal to change the user documentation workflow: The proposal aims to simplify the user documentation workflow, arguing that the current 13-stage GitHub review process causes long delays, big backlogs, and missing docs on the release day.
What’s new in Gutenberg 22.2: This release brings video embeds for the Cover block, enhanced Breadcrumbs block functionality, and new styling options for the Math block and several other improvements and bug fixes.
WordPress Campus Connect growth surges worldwide: The Monthly Education Buzz Report highlights the rapid global expansion of WordPress Campus Connect, with 14 completed events, nearly 2700 students reached, and multiple new campuses launching across Asia, Europe, and Africa. The WordPress Credits program is also growing fast, now partnering with six universities and engaging 88 students in contribution projects, with exciting activities at WordCamp Pisa and Wroclaw.
WooCommerce 10.3.6: Dot release: This release delivers critical stability improvements for WordPress 6.9+ compatibility, including updates to the MCP adapter for better AI feature integration.
Attackers actively exploiting critical vulnerability in Sneeit Framework plugin: The Remote Code Execution vulnerability allows attackers to execute arbitrary code, create admin accounts, or upload malicious files. The issue was patched the issue in version 8.4, but mass exploitation began immediately after public disclosure on November 24, 2025.
Critical vulnerability in King Addons for Elementor Plugin is being actively exploited: A critical privilege escalation flaw is being actively exploited, allowing unauthenticated attackers to register new accounts with administrator privileges. Exploitation began on October 31, 2025, just one day after public disclosure. Users are strongly urged to update to version 51.1.35 immediately and check for suspicious new admin accounts.
100,000 WordPress sites affected by remote code execution vulnerability in Advanced Custom Fields: Extended WordPress plugin: The flaw allows unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary code, potentially adding admin accounts or installing backdoors. The issue was patched in version 0.9.2 and users are to update immediately.
Cloudflare experienced another outage: On December 5, 2025, Cloudflare experienced a network outage affecting roughly 28% of HTTP traffic. The disruption was caused by a configuration change related to mitigating a React Server Components vulnerability, which triggered a bug in Cloudflare’s FL1 proxy and resulted in HTTP 500 errors for impacted customers.

🔧 TIP OF THE WEEK
Avoid Repeating Code (Use `get_template_part`)

Instead of copying header or card layout everywhere, do:

get_template_part('parts/content', 'card');

👥 COMMUNITY NEWS

Updates and News from the WordPress Community

Try it in Playground GitHub Workflow for WordPress

This workflow automatically adds a “Try it in Playground” button to your pull requests, enabling easy testing and feedback for WordPress plugins and themes.

The WordPress community is mourning the loss of Harshad Mane: Aditya Kane expressed his tribute to Harshad Mane, recalling his time at WordCamp Nashik in 2016 and how Harshad offered him ice cream with humor. Harshad was an early participant in India’s WordPress community and served as the lead organizer for the first two editions of WordCamp Nashik. Harshad passed away on November 22nd, leaving a lasting impact on those who knew him.
CloudFest Hackathon 2026 announced: Carole Olinger announced that the 9th CloudFest Hackathon, will be taking place on March 20-22, 2026 at Hotel Krønasår, Germany. The three-day event welcomes developers, AI/ML engineers, and prompt engineers, offers mentoring, full accommodations, and exclusive perks, with applications opening December 15, 2025 for just 110 spots.
Partial Function Application is coming in PHP 8.6: This will allow developers to create pre-configured callables by supplying some function arguments up front and leaving placeholders for the rest.
A visual roadmap on becoming a WordPress developer in 2025: The roadmap offers a clear, detailed overview of the essential skills and concepts needed to be a WordPress developer in 2025, covering everything from basic introduction to local development tools and core WordPress fundamentals to themes, plugins, licensing, updates, and more.
Kinsta SAML SSO is now available: It allows agencies to securely log in to MyKinsta and connected services using a single set of credentials, streamlining onboarding, user management, and offboarding. It enhances security with centralized identity control, just-in-time provisioning, and compliance with standards like SOC2 and GDPR.
20i has launched My20i widgets: This lets users customize their dashboard to show the information that matters most. Users can easily add or remove widgets such as Account Usage Overview, Mailbox Usage and Limits, Security Event History, and CDN Performance Stats.
Events Query Loop block now available for EventKoi: Lesley Sim on X announced the release of this new block for EventKoi, which took six weeks to build. The Events Query Loop block allows users to display a list of events based on specific parameters like date range, or order by date.
Cwicly v1.4.5 released: This is a maintenance release to ensure compatibility with WordPress 6.9, and addresses issues with the top toolbar, editor toolbar, and also includes a few accessibility improvements. Last year, the founder made an unexpected announcement about discontinuing development, but later shared that Cwicly would soon arrive in the WordPress plugin directory. As of now, the plugin has still not been released in the Repository.
ACF 6.7 released: This release introduces Inline Editing, a groundbreaking feature for ACF Blocks, allowing content editors to edit block field data by clicking directly on what they want to edit in the block preview area, without requiring any extra code or JavaScript by the block creator.
The SEO Framework v5.1.3 released: This update adds primary term selection to quick/bulk edit, option visibility toggles, comprehensive Avada theme compatibility, improved Elementor handling, and various bug fixes.
SureForms 2.1.0 released: This release introduces new integrations with HubSpot, MailPoet, and WP Fusion, along with improved upload field guidance and better compatibility with WordPress 6.9.
Pavel Ciorici on the recent update to the Customizer Reset plugin: The recently added features are the ability to reset all Customizer options with auto-backup, export and import settings between sites, and create backups of current Customizer configurations.
Scanfully rebuilt its core architecture: This has led to it becoming truly multi-tenant, ensuring each customer’s data is fully isolated and protected. Instead of relying on application-level filtering, they moved isolation into the database using PostgreSQL Row-Level Security. This required major structural changes, new schemas, strict tenant ownership on every business table, a tenant-scoped execution model, and carefully redesigned background jobs.
Preview of the improved share flow coming soon in Jetpack Social: Devin Walker shared that Jetpack Social is getting a major upgrade, featuring an improved share flow that lets users customize each network, change or create images, add overlay text, and soon, AI can generate post content.
New milestone for WP 2FA plugin: Robert Abela on X highlighted that the plugin has now crossed over 90k active installs.
Michelle Frechette recognized as WomenTech Network Speaker of the Year: Michelle Frechette, Executive Director of Post Status and creator of several WordPress initiatives, has won the WomenTech Network Speaker of the Year Award.
WooCommerce performance gain with PHP 8.5: Tomzur highlighted that performance tests (Woo 10.2.2 on WP 6.8.0) show a big speed boost when moving from PHP 7.4 to modern versions: PHP 8.2 is 23% faster than 7.4, and performance stays steady through PHP 8.4. The real standout is PHP 8.5, hitting 71 req/s, about a 33% jump over PHP 8.4.
WordPress Black Friday Trends analysis by Adi Spiac: He highlighted key Black Friday trends among WordPress plugin companies, including strategies to boost average order value, higher renewal prices with steep first-year discounts, and a notable gap in the multilingual plugin space.
The 2026 AEO/GEO Benchmarks Report: This report unveils the 2026 benchmarks for AI search visibility (AEO/GEO) across 10 major industries. It breaks down how AI Overviews, answer engines, and zero-click citations are reshaping brand discoverability. Using data from 17M+ AI responses and 100M citations, it highlights which brands are winning in AI search, how frequently AI Overviews appear in Google results, and the new KPIs that now matter for visibility in the AI-driven search landscape.

🚀 NEW PROJECTS

“So in WordPress, if a user changes their email, it’s hard to find them searching by their original email. To fix this minor issue, I vibe-coded a simple plugin that keeps a log of changes made to each user.”
— Pavel Ciorici about developing the User History plugin

User History: The plugin created by Pavel Ciorici tracks changes to user accounts, logs profile and password updates, allows admins to change usernames, and so on.
TLDRWP plugin: A WP plugin created by Matt Cromwell, which allows viewers of a post to click an AI button to generate a TLDR summary with your custom CTA messaging.
WPMonitor: Created by Dmytro Lobov, this tool can be used for tracking statistics and analytics of WordPress plugins, themes, and authors.
Introducing OpinionCamp: A new poll plugin has been released by Imtiaz Rayhan, which allows users to create interactive polls right from the Gutenberg editor.
All new eBook Crafter: Created by Naweed Chougle, the plugin transforms your WordPress content into eBooks.
Placeholders launched: The plugin developed by Jake Spurlock that provides Gutenberg blocks for common ad placeholder sizes.
Neurogenesis Styler: The plugin created by Andrei extends the native Gutenberg blocks with advanced design controls. It offers responsive typography, backgrounds, borders, spacing, visual effects, block sizing, hover states, and template editing, enabling professional design directly within the block editor.

🔖 INTERESTING READS & PODCASTS

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

Bud Kraus conversed with Tom Willmot, who shared his journey from a nomadic childhood to leading Human Made, discussing his path into WordPress development, building a successful agency, and balancing professional growth with family life, all in an episode of Seriously, Bud?.
On Open Makers, Anne Bovelett and Troy Chaplin dive into why accessibility matters in WordPress, exploring the personal experiences, practical challenges, and real-world impact behind building accessible tools, improving team workflows, and creating a more inclusive web.
Kurt and Toby discuss the common practice among small agencies of relying solely on referrals for business, which may not be sufficient in the long term. They emphasize the importance of marketing to generate leads and grow your business on this episode of The WP Minute’s Agency Action podcast.
On this episode of WP Tavern Jukebox, Topher DeRosia shared how working in public and contributing to open source can shape careers, spark connections, and create unexpected opportunities.
Bud Kraus breaks down what’s new in WordPress 6.9, covering the latest enhancements for site owners, designers, and developers.
Mumtahina Faguni explored WordPress 6.9 from a non-developer perspective, highlighting new core blocks, editor improvements, and the Abilities API.
Jamie Marsland recounts a whirlwind day in WordPress where a simple plugin idea sparked a rapid, collaborative remix chain moving from inspiration to prototype, AI-powered rebuilds, expert accessibility fixes, and a polished final version.
Jonathan Desrosiers reflects on his seven-year journey as a WordPress Core Committer, sharing insights from his work, milestones, and stats from the past year, while exploring what meaningful contribution and decision-making look like in a large open-source project.
James LePage highlighted how WordPress became AI-native in 2025, covering the new Abilities API, WP AI Client, MCP Adapter, and AI Experiments plugin, and showing how these tools empower developers and users to build and interact with AI-powered features across the platform.
Terence Eden shares a comprehensive list of WordPress features and defaults he disables, showing how developers can remove unnecessary styles, scripts, formatting, and Gutenberg elements to streamline sites and reduce bloat.
Tech predictions for 2026 and beyond explored how AI-driven companion robots combat loneliness, the rise of the renaissance developer in an AI-augmented world, the urgency of quantum-safe security, the acceleration of defense technologies into civilian life, and the transformation of education through personalized AI tutoring.
Robert Abela sits down with Remkus de Vries, to break down the layers of caching, the realities of troubleshooting slow sites, and the decisions that determine long-term performance.
Devin Walker reflects on his first two months at Automattic, sharing optimism about Jetpack’s future. He highlights the product’s modular design, its role in the broader WordPress ecosystem, the potential of AI-powered workflows, and the importance of alignment, clarity, and storytelling.

🛠 GUIDE ZONE – HOWTO’S and MORE

Handpicked fresh guides from WordPress circle

Building a Woo product category image block with WordPress 6.9: From Brian Coords
How to set up custom fonts in block themes: From Learn WP Theme Dev

📆 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 is 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.
28.65% off for the lifetime plan for the Modern Cart for WooCommerce plugin.
33% off for the Uncanny Automator plugin.