WordPress 7.0 RC1 Delayed: Real-Time Collaboration Switched Off by Default, Client-Side Media Pulled

What Happened

On Thursday March 19, the WordPress 7.0 release squad delayed Release Candidate 1 (RC1) by five days — from March 19 to March 24 at 3pm UTC. The decision came after hours of debate in WordPress Slack over three key concerns.

Two significant changes to the release scope were announced alongside the delay:

• Client-side media processing has been pulled entirely from WordPress 7.0. The feature — which would have handled image resizing and compression in the browser to reduce server load — was not ready for prime time. It may return in a future release.
• Real-time collaboration (RTC) will ship switched off by default. Instead of being automatically enabled, multi-author co-editing will be opt-in only, accessible via Settings > Writing. The feature works but has unresolved performance issues that the team did not want to impose on all sites.

Release coordinator Amy Kamala cited concerns across three areas: RTC performance under real-world conditions, client-side media image optimization readiness, and the overall release package size — which had grown larger than acceptable for a core release.

The final release date of April 9 — coinciding with Contributor Day at WordCamp Asia 2026 — remains unchanged.

Why It Matters

This is the second delay for WordPress 7.0 (Beta 1 was also delayed in February). The pattern reflects the ambition of Phase 3 (Collaboration) — real-time co-editing is a technically complex feature that requires reliable sync infrastructure, and shipping it prematurely could cause data loss or editing conflicts for users.

The decision to make RTC opt-in rather than default is pragmatic. Not every WordPress site needs real-time collaboration, and many shared hosting environments may not have the server resources to support HTTP polling sync reliably. Letting site administrators enable it when ready avoids a repeat of the 6.9.2 situation where a new feature caused unexpected issues.

The removal of client-side media is more significant for performance-focused users who were looking forward to browser-based image compression. That feature will need to wait for WordPress 7.1 or later.

What You Should Do

• If you are testing 7.0 beta — Update to RC1 when it drops March 24. Test your themes and plugins for compatibility, especially around the block editor and Interactivity API changes.
• If you run a production site — Do not install RC1 on live sites. Wait for the final release on April 9, then test on a staging environment first.
• Check your PHP version — WordPress 7.0 drops support for PHP 7.2 and 7.3. Verify your host runs PHP 7.4 or higher.
• Plan for RTC opt-in — If you manage a multi-author site and want real-time collaboration, you will need to enable it manually in Settings > Writing after updating to 7.0.

Sources

• WordPress 7.0 Release Candidate 1 Delayed — Make WordPress Core
• WordPress 7.0 RC1 Delayed to March 24 — The Repository
• What's New for Developers (March 2026) — WordPress Developer Blog