WordPress 7.0 Feature Preview: Everything Landing on April 9

WordPress 7.0 ships on April 9, 2026 — the biggest release in years. We’ve covered the individual pieces as they’ve been announced (Connectors API, Content Guidelines, RC1 delay). Here’s everything in one place.

What’s Shipping

Real-Time Collaboration. Multiple users can edit the same post or page simultaneously with live cursor tracking, conflict-free syncing via CRDTs, and offline editing support. The feature uses HTTP polling for universal hosting compatibility — no WebSocket server required. Gutenberg 22.7 shipped 14 bug fixes to stabilize it. It’s enabled by default but won’t override a user’s intentional choice to disable it.

AI Connectors & Content Guidelines. A new Settings → Connectors screen lets you manage API credentials for OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, and Google Gemini from one location. Three official provider plugins are already in the Plugin Directory. Content Guidelines provides a structured place to define your site’s voice, tone, and standards so AI tools can write on-brand content. Both are built on the wp-ai-client SDK.

Visual Revision Tracking. The revisions panel now shows changes with color-coded overlays: green for added blocks, red for removed blocks, yellow for modified settings. Text changes show green underlines for additions and red strikethrough for deletions. Side-by-side version comparison replaces the old text-based diff.

Command Palette in the Admin Bar. New in Beta 5: a ⌘K / Ctrl+K shortcut appears in the admin bar for logged-in users. One click opens the command palette from anywhere — editing, browsing plugins, or managing settings. It’s the fastest way to navigate WordPress.

New Blocks and Design Tools

• Icon Block: Add scalable SVG icons with a built-in library registration API
• Breadcrumbs Block: Native breadcrumb navigation for better UX and SEO
• Gallery Lightbox: Full-screen image viewing with arrow key navigation
• Video Embed Backgrounds: Use video embeds in Cover blocks for dynamic hero sections
• Responsive Grid Block: Layouts that adapt across screen sizes
• Navigation Overlay Patterns: Customizable mobile navigation with breakpoint settings
• Content-Only Pattern Editing: Default mode for 7.0 — edit pattern content without touching structure

Admin and Developer Changes

• Refreshed wp-admin: Modern, cleaner dashboard design with smooth view transitions between screens
• Abilities & Workflows API: Machine-readable registry of site capabilities for AI tools and automation
• WP-CLI: New wp block commands for read-only access to block entities
• wp-env: Playground runtime now includes phpMyAdmin, reaching feature parity with Docker
• Global Styles: Custom CSS honors block-defined feature selectors via block.json

What You Should Do

Test now. Download Beta 5 or use wp core update --version=7.0-beta5. RC1 is due March 24. The final release is April 9 at WordCamp Asia in Mumbai.

Plugin developers: Test compatibility now. Three major releases are planned for 2026 (7.0, 7.1, 7.2), so build testing into your release workflow.

Site owners: Plan your update for the week after April 9 once any edge-case patches land. Back up first.

Sources

• WordPress 7.0 Beta 5 — WordPress.org News
• What’s New in WordPress 7.0 — WPDeveloper
• What’s New for Developers (March 2026) — WordPress Developer Blog