WordPress 6.0 Beta 1 is now available for download and testing.

This version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, and test this version of WordPress on a production or mission-critical website. Instead, it is recommended that you test Beta 1 on a test server and site. 

You can test the WordPress 6.0 Beta 1 in three ways:

• Option 1: Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).
• Option 2: Direct download the beta version here (zip).
• Option 3: Use WP-CLI to test: wp core update --version=6.0-beta1. Do not use this option if your filesystem is case-insensitive.

The current target for the final release is May 24, 2022, which is about six weeks away. 

Additional information on the full 6.0 release cycle is available.

Check the Make WordPress Core blog for 6.0-related developer notes in the coming weeks which will detail all upcoming changes.

Keep WordPress Bug Free – Help with Testing

Testing for issues is critical for stabilizing a release throughout its development. Testing is also a great way to contribute. If you have never tested a beta release before, this detailed guide will walk you through how to get started.

Testing helps make sure that this and future releases of WordPress are as stable and issue-free as possible. And anyone can do it – especially great WordPress community members just like you.

Want to know more about testing releases like this one? Read about the testing initiatives that happen in Make Core. You can also join a publicly-accessible channel on the Making WordPress Slack workspace.

If you think you have run into an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. If you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, you can file one on WordPress Trac. This is also where you can find a list of known bugs.

To review features in the Gutenberg releases since WordPress 5.9 (the most recent major release of WordPress), access the What’s New In Gutenberg posts for 13.0 (release pending), 12.9, 12.8, 12.7, 12.6, 12.5, 12.4, 12.3, 12.2, 12.1, and 12.0.  

Beyond the noted changes, which include more than 400 updates and 500 bug fixes for the editor, contributors have fixed 189 tickets for the WordPress 6.0 core, including 91 new features and enhancements. More fixes are on the way.

Some Highlights

Want to know what’s new in version 6.0? Read on for some highlights.

The WordPress 6.0 release will be packed with all kinds of improvements. Here are just a few:

• Style Switching: switch up the look and feel of your site, all in one block theme. No need to change themes!
• More template options: use blocks to edit five more templates (author, date, categories, tag, and taxonomy).
• Multi-select: Easily select text across multiple blocks. Edit to your liking.
• Retain Styles: Keep your custom styles in place, whether transforming between blocks or creating new buttons. 
• More patterns in more places: the Quick Inserter surfaces patterns that might work well for the condition you’re in, baking in relevant patterns for template parts and pages you’re working on. 
• List View improvements: New keyboard shortcuts (shift + click) let you select multiple blocks to modify in bulk (reposition, delete, etc.), see your content at a glance with a collapsed by default view, and more.
• Refined design tools: Explore a new color panel, transparency options, more group block variations to create new layout options (Stack, Row), the ability to set your featured image in a Cover block, control the exact size of your featured image, gap support for the Gallery block, and more.
• New blocks: Comments, Read More, No results in Query Loop, Post Author biography, Avatar blocks. 
• Block Locking UI: Choose to disable the option to remove a block, move it, or both, right in the editor. 
• Export block themes: Explore the improved block theme export tool, as WordPress heads closer to codeless visual block theme building.
• Webfonts API: Manage local fonts with PHP or theme.json. 

Thank you to the following contributors for collaborating on this post: @annezazu, @chanthaboune, @marybaum, @priethor, and @webcommsat.