WordPress 6.9 Beta 1 is now available and is open to testing and feedback. This will be the second major release of WordPress this year. As of now, the scheduled date for the WordPress 6.9 release is 2 December 2025.
New Features to Explore and Test in Beta 1
The roadmap for WordPress 6.9 was published earlier and gave us a glimpse into the new features and improvements that are to be released. Now, with the release of beta 1, several new upcoming features and enhancements need proper testing, such as :
Expanded Template Management
Users can now separate custom and theme templates, create multiple templates per slug, edit and save without activating them, and easily manage revisions. Those interested in testing out the new template management can follow this call for testing post for detailed information.
New Option to Hide Blocks
WordPress 6.9 adds the ability to hide specific blocks from visitors while keeping them visible in the editor, making content preparation more flexible.
Notes
Previously known as “Block level Comment/ inline comments”, Notes allows site admins to leave comments with regard to individual blocks in the editor itself.
Command Palette
With the upcoming release, Command Palette can be accessed both in the editor as well in the dashboard.
Several New Blocks
WordPress 6.9 introduces new blocks such as an Accordion Block, Terms Query Block, Time to read block, and Math Block. The Paragraph and Heading block will also support Fit Text. All these new blocks and feature improvements will need proper testing to ensure they are ready for the final release.
Border Radius Size Presets
The upcoming version also adds border radius presets, allowing theme developers to set predefined radius options that users can easily apply to supported blocks.
Custom Icons Support in Social Links
Adding custom social icons to the Social Icons block is now possible via block variations and removes the need for an extra plugin and code.
Miscellaneous
There are many more features and improvements that need testing, such as DataViews and DataForm, the Abilities API, Interactivity API improvements, Block Bindings, and HTML API.
Also, this release will not introduce a new default theme and early preview plugins such as the PHP AI Client and MCP Adapter will be launched as canonical packages and plugins alongside WordPress 6.9.