WordPress 7.2 is planned for release in early December 2026, with the roadmap outlining updates across security, collaboration, styling, the block editor, and the WordPress admin experience.
The release is set to include new features such as suggestions and emoji reactions in Notes, a Secrets API, an extensible Site Editor, and a new Description List block. Collaborative editing, however, has been left off the 7.2 roadmap, although work on the feature continues alongside the release cycle.
Release team takes shape
The WordPress 7.2 roadmap was published by Anne McCarthy, who served as the release lead for WordPress 7.1. The roadmap follows the formation of the WordPress 7.2 release squad, which is led by Matt Mullenweg, with David Baumwald handling release coordination. George Mamadashvili and Peter Wilson are the tech leads, while Henrique Iamarino is leading the default theme design. Maggie Cabrera and Carolina Nymark are the default theme development leads, with Jb Audras and Eshaan Dabasiya as triage leads and Md Noruzzaman, Jina Parekh, and Erick Wambua as test leads.
What’s planned for WordPress 7.2
Secrets API, Application Passwords, and sudo mode
Several of the planned security changes concern how WordPress handles credentials and privileged actions. A proposed Secrets API would provide a dedicated mechanism for storing credentials, with WP-CLI support planned and a user interface intended for a later release.
Application Passwords are also being revised. The planned changes include email notifications when an application password is created, different handling for non-HTTPS and local environments, protection against dangerous default_role values and support for the SameSite cookie attribute.
Another security-related change under consideration is “sudo mode”. The proposed feature would require users to authenticate again before carrying out highly privileged administrative actions, even when they are already signed in.
Work on HTML processing is continuing as well, with the HTML API being used as the foundation for further hardening of how WordPress parses and processes markup.
Accessibility work is planned alongside these changes. This includes making admin notices more accessible, adding automated testing through axe-core, turning off metabox rearranging and removing widget accessibility mode.
Notes expands while collaborative editing stays out
Notes is getting a broader editing workflow in 7.2. Users will be able to suggest changes that can later be accepted or rejected, while emoji reactions and a dedicated block-toolbar shortcut are also planned.
The broader collaborative editing project will not be part of the 7.2 release itself. McCarthy also highlighted, “Collaborative editing is intentionally not on the roadmap for 7.2, even as work continues alongside this release cycle.” Work on the feature is continuing separately as the project addresses architectural decisions and carries out further outreach.
Site Editor opens to third-party extensions
The Site Editor is gaining an extension mechanism that will allow plugin developers to register their own screens and settings. This is being supported through a server-side view-config endpoint, with navigation editing among the projects already using the underlying foundation.
Block-related work is moving in several directions at once. The upcoming version is adding a native Description List block made up of separate list, term, and detail blocks. The experimental Table of Contents block is also being prepared for a stable release.
The Icon Block is getting keyword search so that users can find icons through terms associated with their use, while work on the Interactivity API continues. React 19 compatibility is also being developed, although the roadmap says the work is unlikely to be completely included in 7.2.
More control over styling and administration
Global Styles is being expanded to cover common form elements, including buttons, text inputs and select controls. The changes are intended to let users configure these elements without having to write custom CSS or manually edit theme.json.
Responsive styling is also being extended to support third-party blocks through a public API. Other editor work covers custom states for interactive blocks and better visibility of values inherited from Global Styles.
On the administration side, the team is redesigning error states to provide clearer diagnostics and adding a button for copying error messages. The admin bar and menus are moving from dashicons to SVG icons, while the command palette is also being refined. A further attempt is being made to introduce an “On This Day” dashboard widget after it was deferred from WordPress 7.1.
Media and performance work continues
Media improvements include further development of browser-based processing, changes to the upload pipeline, broader format support and performance work. The media inserter is being redesigned to better handle large media libraries, and the Media Editor Modal is being updated to maintain the relationship between cropped images and their original attachments.
Performance work includes replacing script and style concatenation with prefetching and improving responsive image handling. WordPress is also continuing to refine the visual revisions experience that was introduced in version 7.0.
AI development remains outside the release commitment
AI-related development is continuing through the WordPress AI plugin rather than being guaranteed for the 7.2 release. The work includes expanding WordPress abilities, updating the MCP Adapter, distributing the adapter through the WordPress.org Plugin Directory, and reducing the setup required to enable MCP access.
Other AI work covers WebMCP experiments for browser-based agent workflows, mechanisms for agent identity and delegation, reusable site knowledge and editorial guidance, embeddings and semantic search, and streaming AI responses through the PHP AI Client. Improvements to Connectors are also being pursued.
Ipsum is proposed as the next default theme
WordPress is also proposing Ipsum as the next default theme. Planned for inclusion in 7.2, it is designed as a minimal blog theme built around a blank canvas.
In the announcement post introducing Ipsum, Henrique Iamarino also said, “ The approach for this theme also marks a move away from year-based naming, based on direction from Matt. Going forward, default themes will have their own names and change when the design calls for it, not when the calendar does.”
The first beta is planned for around October 20–22, with the final release scheduled for around December 8–10.