Version 4.4 of WordPress, named “Clifford” in honor of jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown, is available for download or update in your WordPress dashboard. New features in 4.4 make your site more connected and responsive. Clifford also introduces a new default theme, Twenty Sixteen.

Introducing Twenty Sixteen
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Our newest default theme, Twenty Sixteen, is a modern take on a classic blog design.
Twenty Sixteen was built to look great on any device. A fluid grid design, flexible header, fun color schemes, and more, will all make your content shine.

Responsive Images
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WordPress now takes a smarter approach to displaying appropriate image sizes on any device, ensuring a perfect fit every time. You don’t need to do anything to your theme, it just works.

Embed Everything

New Embeds Feature in WordPress 4.4

Now you can embed your posts on other WordPress sites. Simply drop a post URL into the editor and see an instant embed preview, complete with the title, excerpt, and featured image if you’ve set one. We’ll even include your site icon and links for comments and sharing.
In addition to post embeds, WordPress 4.4 also adds support for five new oEmbed providers: Cloudup, Reddit Comments, ReverbNation, Speaker Deck, and VideoPress.

Under the Hood
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REST API infrastructure
Infrastructure for the REST API has been integrated into core, marking a new era in developing with WordPress. The REST API gives developers an easy way to build and extend RESTful APIs on top of WordPress.
Infrastructure is the first part of a multi-stage rollout for the REST API. Inclusion of core endpoints is targeted for an upcoming release. To get a sneak peek of the core endpoints, and for more information on extending the REST API, check out the official WordPress REST API plugin.
Term meta
Terms now support metadata, just like posts. See add_term_meta(), get_term_meta(), and update_term_meta() for more information.
Comment query improvements
Comment queries now have cache handling to improve performance. New arguments in WP_Comment_Query make crafting robust comment queries simpler.

Term, comment, and network objects
New WP_Term, WP_Comment, and WP_Network objects make interacting with terms, comments, and networks more predictable and intuitive in code.

The Team
This release was led by Scott Taylor, with the help of these fine individuals. There are 471 contributors with props in this release (by far the most ever!). Pull up some Clifford Brown on your music service of choice, and check out some of their profiles:
@mercime, _smartik_, A5hleyRich, Aaron D. Campbell, Aaron Jorbin, Aaron Rutley, Adam Harley (Kawauso), Adam Silverstein, adamholisky, Ahmad Awais, Aki Björklund, AlbertoCT, Alex Kirk, Alex Mills (Viper007Bond), Alex Shiels, Alexander Gounder, alireza1375, Amanda Giles, amereservant, Amy Hendrix (sabreuse), Andrea Fercia, Andrew Duthie, Andrew Nacin, Andrew Norcross, Andrew Ozz, Andy Fragen, Angelo Mandato, Ankit Gade, Ankit K Gupta, Anthony Burchell, ap.koponen, apokalyptik, Athsear'J.S., atomicjack, Austin Ginder, Austin Matzko, Barry Ceelen, Barry Kooij, bcworkz, BdN3504, Bego Mario Garde, Ben May, Benjamin Pick, berengerzyla, Bernhard Riedl, bigdawggi, bilalcoder, BinaryKitten, Birgir Erlendsson (birgire), Bjørn Johansen, bobbingwide, bonger, Boone B. Gorges, Brad Touesnard, bradparbs, Brady Vercher, Brandon Kraft, bravokeyl, brentvr, brettz95, Bruno Kos, Cam, Cami Kaos, carolinegeven, Casey Bisson, ch1902, Chandra M, Chandra Patel, Chase Wiseman, Chiara Dossena, Chip Bennett, Chirag Swadia, Chris Christoff, Chris Kindred, Chris Klosowski, chriscoyier, Chrisdc1, christianoliff, Christoph Herr, Christopher Finke, cjhaas, codeelite, Coen Jacobs, Compute, Courtney Ivey, Craig Ralston, Curtiss Grymala, Cătălin Dogaru, Daisuke Takahashi, Dan Boulet, Daniel Bachhuber, Daniel Jalkut (Red Sweater), Daniel Koskinen, Daniel Ménard, Daniele Scasciafratte, daniellandau, daniloercoli, Danny de Haan, Danny van Kooten, Darren Ethier (nerrad), Daryl L. L. Houston (dllh), Datta Parad, Dave McHale, David A. Kennedy, David Anderson, David Binovec, David Herrera, David Shanske, DeBAAT, Denis de Bernardy, Dennis Ploetner, Derek Herman, Devin Price, Dezzy, Dion Hulse, Dipali Dhole, dipesh.kakadiya, Dominik Bruderer, Dominik Schilling, Dossy Shiobara, Dreb Bits, Drew Jaynes, dustinbolton, Dzikri Aziz, edirect24, Eduardo Reveles, Eduardo Zulian, Edward Caissie, Egill R. Erlendsson, egower, Ehsaan, ehtis, Ella Iseulde Van Dorpe, Ellie Strejlau, Elliott Stocks, elusiveunit, enshrined, Eric Andrew Lewis, Eric Binnion, Eric Daams, Eric Mann, ericjuden, Evan Herman, F4rkie, Felix Arntz, Firdaus Zahari, firebird75, fonglh, francoisb, Frank Klein, Frankie Jarrett, Fredrik Forsmo, Gaelan Lloyd, Gagan Deep Singh, Gary Cao, Gary Jones, Gary Pendergast, garza, Gaurav Pareek, Gautam Gupta, gblsm, geminorum, Gerhard Potgieter, geza.miklo, Gijs Jorissen, Giuseppe Mamone, Giustino Borzacchiello, gnaka08, gradyetc, Greg Rickaby, Gregory Karpinsky (@tivnet), Gustavo Bordoni, Gustavo Bordoni, gwinh.lopez, hakre, hauvong, Helen Hou-Sandí, Hinaloe, Hrishikesh Vaipurkar, Hugh Lashbrooke, Hugo Baeta, Iain Poulson, Ian Dunn, Ian Stewart, icetee, Ignacio Cruz Moreno, Ihor Vorotnov, imath, ippetkov, Ivan Kristianto, J.D. Grimes, jadpm, jakub.tyrcha, James Huff, Jan Henckens, Japh, Jasper de Groot, jazbek, jcroucher, Jeff Farthing, Jeff Stieler, JeffMatson, Jeffrey de Wit, Jeffrey Schutzman, jeichorn, Jennifer M. Dodd, Jeremy Felt, Jeremy Pry, Jeroen Schmit, Jesin A, Jesper van Engelen, jim912, jliman, jmayhak, jnylen0, Jobst Schmalenbach, Joe Dolson, Joe Hoyle, Joe McGill, joehills, John Blackbourn, John James Jacoby, John P. Bloch, John Parris, Jon Cave, Jonathan Bardo, Jonathan Desrosiers, Joost de Valk, Jorge Bernal, Josh Betz, Josh Eaton, Josh Pollock, jpr, jrf, Juhi Saxena, Julio Potier, justdaiv, Justin Sainton, Justin Shreve, Justin Sternberg, Justin Tadlock, K.Adam White, Kailey (trepmal), KalenJohnson, karinedo, karpstrucking, Kelly Dwan, Kevin Behrens, Kevin Langley, kevinatelement, kitchin, Kite, Konstantin Kovshenin, Konstantin Obenland, KrissieV, Krzysiek Dróżdż, Kurt Payne, laceous, Lance Willett, Laurens Offereins, lcherpit, ldinclaux, Lee Willis, leemon, lessbloat, linuxologos, Lucas Karpiuk, lucatume, luciole135, Lucy Tomas, Luke Carbis, madalin.ungureanu, Mako, manolis09, Marcin Pietrzak, Marin Atanasov, Mario Peshev, Marius (Clorith), Mark Jaquith, Marko Heijnen, Markus, Mat Marquis, Matheus Martins, Matt Bagwell, Matt Gibbs, Matt Martz, Matt Mullenweg, Matt van Andel, Matthew Boynes, Matthew Ell, Matthew Haines-Young, mazurstas, mbrandys, mdmcginn, Mehul Kaklotar, Meitar, Mel Choyce, meloniq, micahmills, micahwave, Michael Adams (mdawaffe), Michael Arestad, Michael Cain, Michiel Habraken, Mickey Kay, Mike Glendinning, Mike Hansen, Mike Jolley, Mike Jordan, Mike Schinkel, Mike Schroder, Milan Dinić, mismith227, misterunknown, mitcho (Michael Yoshitaka Erlewine), Monika, morganestes, Morten Rand-Hendriksen, moto hachi ( mt8.biz ), Mr Papa, mrmist, mulvane, neoscrib, NExT-Season, Niall Kennedy, nicholas_io, Nick Ciske, Nick Halsey, NickDuncan, Nicolas Juen, nikeo, Nikhil Chavan, Niklas, Nikola Nikolov, Nikolay Bachiyski, Nilambar Sharma, OriginalEXE, Paresh Radadiya, Pascal Birchler, Pat O'Brien, Paul Bearne, Paul de Wouters, Paul Ryan, Paul Wilde, pavelevap, Payton Swick, Peter Wilson, Petter Walbø Johnsgård, Petya Raykovska, pfefferle, Philip Arthur Moore, PhilipLakin, Philipp Cordes, Piotr Delawski, Piotr Soluch, Pippin Williamson, Prasad Nevase, Prasath Nadarajah, Pratik, Rachel Baker, rajnikmit, Rakesh Lawaju (Racase Lawaju), ramay, Rami Yushuvaev, Raul Illana, renoirb, rhubbardreverb, Rhys Wynne, Rian Rietveld, Richard Tape, Robert Chapin, Rodrigo Primo, Roger Chen, Rommel Castro, Ron Rennick, Ronald Huereca, Russell Heimlich, Ruud Laan, Ryan Kienstra, Ryan Markel, Ryan McCue, Ryan Welcher, Safirul Alredha, Sal Ferrarello, salvoaranzulla, Sam Brodie, sam2kb, Samir Shah, Samuel Sidler, Samuel Wood (Otto), Sanket Parmar, Sara Rosso, sarciszewski, Scott Grant, Scott Kingsley Clark, Scott Reilly, scottbrownconsulting, ScreenfeedFr, scribu, sdavis2702, Sean Hayes, Sebastian Pisula, Sergey Biryukov, serpent7776, several27, shimakyohsuke, Shinichi Nishikawa, side777, Simon Prosser, Simon Wheatley, Siobhan, sirzooro, sjmur, smerriman, Spacedmonkey, Stéphane Boisvert, Stanislav Khromov, Stanko Metodiev, stebbiv, Stefan Froehlich, Stephanie Leary, Stephen Edgar, Stephen Harris, Steve Grunwell, stevehenty, SteveHoneyNZ, Steven Word, Store Locator Plus, Sudar Muthu, Sujay, Sumit Singh, summerblue, Sunny Ratilal, Takashi Irie, Takayuki Miyauchi, Tammie Lister, Tanner Moushey, tbcorr, Terry Chay, tharsheblows, theMikeD, Thomas Kräftner, thomaswm, Thorsten Frommen, Thorsten Ott, tigertech, Till Krüss, Tim Evko, tmatsuur, tmeister, TobiasBg, Tom Willmot, TomHarrigan, tommarshall, tomsommer, Toni Viemerö, Toro_Unit (Hiroshi Urabe), Tracy Levesque, Tran Ngoc Tuan Anh, Travis Smith, trenzterra, Tryon Eggleston, tszming, ty, Ty Carlson, Tyler Carter, Ulrich, Ulrich Sossou, Umesh Kumar, Umesh Nevase, Utkarsh, vilkatis, voldemortensen, Walter Ebert, walterbarcelos, webaware, webdevmattcrom, WEN Solutions, WEN Themes, Weston Ruter, wmertens, Wojtek Szkutnik, WP Plugin Dev dot com, wpdev101, wpseek, wturrell, Yam Chhetri, Yoav Farhi, Zach Wills, Zack Rothauser, and Zack Tollman.
 
Special thanks go to Siobhan McKeown for producing the release video with Sara Rosso, and Cami Kaos for the voice-over.
Finally, thanks to all of the contributors who provided subtitles for the release video, which at last count had been translated into 23 languages!
If you want to follow along or help out, check out Make WordPress and our core development blog. Thanks for choosing WordPress. See you soon for version 4.5!