Hi there,
How did the upgrade to WordPress 6.9 go for you and those around you? Did anything break? Or are you waiting for 6.9.1 to come out?
Once in a while I get a question on how I keep up with the fast progress and the vast range of updates in Gutenberg and WordPress Core. Here is one source of information I am grateful for: Contributors working on the Gutenberg project started posting their so-called “Iteration for WordPress 7.0” issues on GitHub. I bookmarked this list and once in a while I will check up on the progress, especially when I get lost in the weeds of single PRs and need to align again on big picture goals. It’s not a comprehensive list, though.
From the conversations at State of the Word 2025, I learned that the community is embracing the educational initiatives of Campus Connect and WordPress Credits. Seeing more generations stream into the ecosystem warms this perpetual community organizer’s heart. Equally exciting is the foundational work the AI Team has accomplished to ready the ecosystem for the era of Artificialle Interlligence (AI) when LLMs and helper agents elevate research, publishing and amplification for people.
What did stand out for you after watching the State of the Word video? Email me or leave a comment.
Below is another walk-through of the buzz around block editor, plugins and Playground. Enjoy, and have a wonderful weekend.
Yours, 
Birgit
Developing Gutenberg and WordPress
WordPress 6.9 “Gene” was released during State of the Word 2025, with most of the release leads present at the in-person event. You can revisit the moment on YouTube 41:35 minutes into the recording, with the demonstration of the major features by Matias Ventura.
Nicholas Garofalo wrote State of the Word 2025: Innovation Shaped by Community. Matt Mullenweg and Mary Hubbard, our Executive Director, delivered WordPress’s yearly update, which included an exciting live launch of WordPress 6.9. The keynote dug into how we’re mixing in AI with features like the Abilities API and MCP adapter, highlighted the awesome growth of our global community across 81 WordCamps, and showed off cool tools like Telex that help you create AI-powered blocks. Some major highlights were new collaboration features, upgraded developer APIs, and more ways to connect learners around the globe to opportunities on the open web.
Rae Morey, The Repository, reports on the annual keynote in detail in her post State of the Word 2025: AI, Education, and a Community Holding Steady Through a “Rollercoaster” Year.
You can watch the entire State of the Word event on YouTube.
James Le Page elaborated in SOTW 2025:The Year WordPress Became AI-Native how WordPress delivered four foundational AI components in version 6.9, six months after forming its first dedicated AI team. The Abilities API creates unified registries for AI agents, while the WP AI Client provides provider-agnostic LLM interfaces. The MCP Adapter exposes capabilities externally, and the AI Experiments Plugin demonstrates practical implementations. Looking ahead, version 7.0 will introduce client-side abilities and a Workflows API for chaining actions, positioning WordPress to remain central as AI reshapes content consumption and creation across the open web.
Save the Date! January 13, 7pm UTC Join James LePage and Jamie Marsland for a hallway hangout on all things WordPress AI. If you are interested, comment on the tweet or ping Jamie Marsland.
In WordPress 6.9 Is Out! The Main Features You Need to Know, Karol Kroll gives you a walk-through of the new version on his YouTube channel.
Maddy Osman reported on What’s New for Bloggers, Creators, and Site Owners in WordPress 6.9. and highlights collaboration tools like block-level notes and hide-show toggles, new creative blocks including Accordion and Term Query for enriched storytelling, plus performance improvements loading styles on demand.
In his post Ability to Hide Blocks in WordPress 6.9, Aki Hamano, sponsored triage co-release lead, shared more detail about this new WordPress features and how to disable it.
Rhys Wynne discussed the release of WordPress 6.9, noting it contains more visible features compared to version 6.8. He highlights three key improvements: the Notes,; the Accordion block, and the Command Palette.
On the Hostinger Blog, Bud Kraus explained the many features of WordPress 6.9, highlighting Notes, Accordion and Terms Query blocks and the Command Palette. Kraus emphasizes developer enhancements like the Abilities API, improved Block Bindings, and removal of legacy Internet Explorer code. He notes this release marks the official start of Phase Three collaboration features while balancing practical user improvements.
Carlo Daniele reported on the latest WordPress release for Kinsta. In New features, new blocks, new APIs: here is what’s new in WordPress 6.9, he discusses key features like the Command Palette, Notes, and new blocks. He also covers updates for developers, including the streaming block parser, custom Social Link icons, the Abilities API, Block Bindings, and improvements to the Interactivity API and DataViews.
Earlier this week, I worked on the release of Gutenberg 22.2. You can read my release post on the Make Blog: What’s new in Gutenberg 22.2 (03 December)?. The highlights are:
- Cover block video embeds
- Breadcrumbs block enhancements
- Styling options for the Math block.
- Other Notable Highlights, like Button block pseudo-state styling and DataViews upgrades.
JC Palmes, principal technical manager at WebDevStudios, joined me for the Gutenberg Changelog episode #125, and we talked through the last two Gutenberg plugin releases.
The latest episode is Gutenberg Changelog #125 – WordPress 6.9, Gutenberg 22.1 and Gutenberg 22.2 with JC Palmes, WebDev Studios
Plugins and Tools for #nocode site builders
Bernhard Kau, a PHP developer from Berlin and community organizer, started an Advent Calendar to showcase recommended plugins. The Dec. 3 edition featured Block Editor: Reverse Columns on Mobile – a small block options plugin. He likes it for its ability to solve mobile layout issues with just 250 lines of code, managing columns, group blocks, and media-text arrangements. Instead of needing to add custom CSS classes manually, the plugin uses simple checkboxes to order image and text correctly on mobile and supports RTL languages and various flex layouts. While some believe fewer plugins are better, Kau prefers targeted solutions that do exactly what he would code himself, making features easy for content editors on no-code sites without overcomplicating the functionality. If you need a guide through the forest of plugins in the WordPress ecosystem you should follow Bernhard Kau’s blog.
Jake Spurlock released Placeholders, a WordPress plugin that simplifies wireframing ad layouts by offering fourteen Gutenberg blocks for common IAB advertising sizes. Each block shows clean wireframe-style placeholders with accurate dimensions, customizable colors, and alignment options, all without needing an actual ad setup. This free plugin empowers designers and developers to create mock placements for design phases, client presentations, and layout testing. Future updates may add custom sizes, layout templates, and ad management features. The plugin is available on the WordPress repository.
Joop Laan has created a new plugin called Inline Context. It adds expandable tooltip popovers to your content for easy definitions, references, and clarifications without interrupting reading. You can highlight text, provide rich-text explanations, and categorize notes with custom icons and colors. This plugin is great for editorial sites, documentation, and research platforms. It’s fully keyboard-accessible and ready for translation. Laan also offers a live preview of the plugin in Playground to see it in action.
Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor
Last month, JuanMa Garrido and Jonathan Bossenger invited user to the Developer Hours: WordPress 6.9 Block Bindings & Interactivity API. The recording is now available on WordPress TV.
Ronald Huereca discusses the Admin-Wide Command Palette which now operates in the entire admin area with CMD/CTRL-K. He shows how to disable the palette selectively using the wp-core-commands script handle, enable it on the frontend, and create custom commands using React hooks and registerPlugin. Huereca includes code snippets for different contexts—block editor only, admin excluding editor, or both—and suggests using separate script endpoints for new commands in existing block plugins to prevent iframe issues.
Brian Coords shared a tutorial on creating a Woo Product Category Image Block with WordPress 6.9, using the Block Bindings API and a new Terms Query Loop to show product category images without custom blocks. The method registers bindings using PHP on the server to get term meta thumbnails and uses JavaScript for the editor preview through WooCommerce’s data package. A block variation allows for easy insertion. Coords mentions this solves issues where taxonomy term images aren’t standard in WordPress, but he notes the increasing clutter in the block inserter due to more specialized variations.
Felix Arntz address on LinkedIn frequently asked question, on how he built the Gutenberg-like UI in his AI Services plugin for WordPress. In a new npm package called wp-interface he provided an abstracted solution anyone can use to get started integrating it into their plugins.
On his livestream, Jonathan Bossenger tested WordPress 6.9 and showed how to use its Block Bindings updates in a custom plugin. He explored custom post types and meta fields, worked with block bindings, and updated custom fields. Watch him solve debugging issues, add a year field, and improve a custom plugin.
In his blog post WordPress Development Without a Computer, Alex Kirk, long time WordPress contributor, outlines how he envisions AI-assisted fixes on the fly on a WordPress site. “With AI coding assistants that run in the browser—like Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot Workspace, or similar tools—combined with WordPress Playground for testing, you can now do WordPress plugin development without a computer.” Kirk provides a step-by-step instructions on how to make it possible today.
In his livestream, JuanMa Garrido discussed the Interactivity Router package, highlighting its ability to load content without full page reloads. He demonstrated client-side navigation in query loop blocks and interactive lightbox behavior. The session included enabling client-side navigation, performance comparisons, and practical API documentation examples.
What’s new in Playground
In this 2025 Year in Review, Playground architect Adam Zieliński lists transformative achievements including supporting ninety-nine percent of WordPress plugins, running PHPMyAdmin and Laravel alongside substantial performance gains through OpCache and concurrent workers. New PHP extensions like XDebug enable modern debugging workflows while state-of-the-art MySQL emulation powers comprehensive database management. Developer tools now include file browsers, Blueprint editors, and one-click Gutenberg branch previews.
The community contributed translations across six languages, earned forty-eight contributor badges, and demonstrated Playground at WordCamps globally, establishing it as essential infrastructure for testing, teaching, and building WordPress.
Questions? Suggestions? Ideas?
Don’t hesitate to send them via email or
send me a message on WordPress Slack or Twitter @bph.
For questions to be answered on the Gutenberg Changelog,
send them to changelog@gutenbergtimes.com