WordPress 6.2 Beta 1 is ready for download and testing!

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

You can test WordPress 6.2 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 1 version (zip).

Option 3: Use the following WP-CLI command:

wp core update --version=6.2-beta1

The current target for the final release is March 28, 2023, which is seven weeks away. Your help testing this version is vital to ensuring everything in this release is the best it can be.

Get an overview of the 6.2 release cycle, and check the Make WordPress Core blog for 6.2-related posts in the coming weeks for further details.

How you can help: testing!

Testing for issues is a critical part of developing any software, and it’s a meaningful way for anyone to contribute—whether you have experience or not. This detailed guide is a great place to start if you’ve never tested a beta release.

If you build products for WordPress, you probably realize that the sooner you can test this release with your themes, plugins, and patterns, the easier it will be for you to offer a seamless experience to your users.

Want to know more about testing releases in general? You can follow along with the testing initiatives that happen in Make Core. You can also join the #core-test channel on the Making WordPress Slack workspace.

If you think you may 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. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs.

Interested in Gutenberg features? Find out what’s been included since WordPress 6.1 (the last major release of WordPress). You will find more details in the currently available What’s new in Gutenberg posts for  15.1, 15.0, 14.9, 14.8, 14.7, 14.6, 14.5, 14.4, 14.3, and 14.2.

This release contains more than 292 enhancements and 354 bug fixes for the editor, including more than 195 tickets for the WordPress 6.2 core.

A major release for a major project milestone

WordPress 6.2 is one of the last planned major releases of Phase 2 on the Gutenberg project’s roadmap. The platform has come a long way in the past few years. The 6.2 release both celebrates that progress and looks toward a future of publishing that puts ever more powerful tools in your hands. 

Next stop: collaboration tools and more, in Phase 3!

Notable highlights

Want to know what’s new in WordPress version 6.2? Read on for a taste of what’s coming.

• Beta label is gone—signaling that the Site Editor is stable and ready for anyone to explore, create, and experiment!
• Distraction-free mode for a clear, focused writing experience.
• A new Site Editor interface shows you previews of your templates and Template Parts first, so you can choose exactly where you want to start editing.
• Scaled block settings with split controls organize your Styles and Settings options to easily find what you need—and clearly see everything a block can do. 
• Color-coded labels help you find your Template Parts and Reusable Blocks fast, everywhere you look: in the List View, the Block toolbar, even on the Canvas.
• An improved Navigation experience makes menus simple to create and manage—right from the block settings sidebar.
• Patterns are easier to find and insert—with even more categories to choose from like headers and footers! 
• A new Style Book offers one place to see all your Styles across every block, for a complete overview of your site’s design details.
• Custom CSS support for specific blocks, or your whole site, for another level of control over how you want things to look. 
• Openverse integration lets you pull free, openly-licensed media directly into your content as you work—along with a quicker way to insert media from your existing library.
• Widgets become Template Parts when you switch from a Classic to a Block Theme—making the transition that much smoother.

Please note that the features in this list may change before the final release.

A haiku for 6.2

Last of Phase 2 nowLet’s get the party startedWordPress turns 20

Thank you to the following contributors for collaborating on this post: @marybaum @laurlittle @cbringmann, @webcommsat, @audrasjb, @annezazu, @bhp