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

WordPress 7.0 Release Candidate 1 drops tomorrow, March 24, at 15:00 UTC. But it won’t look exactly like the betas. Two significant features have been scaled back since Beta 5, and understanding what changed matters if you’re planning your 7.0 upgrade.

What Happened

Release coordinator Amy Kamala delayed RC1 by five days (from March 19 to March 24) to address concerns in three areas. Here’s what the release squad decided:

Client-side media processing: pulled entirely. This feature would have handled image optimization in the browser before uploading — resizing, format conversion, and compression on the client side rather than the server. It was one of WordPress 7.0’s headline features, but performance and reliability concerns led the squad to remove it from the release completely. It may return in WordPress 7.1 (August 2026).

Real-Time Collaboration: ships off by default. RTC — the Google Docs-style collaborative editing feature — will be included in 7.0 but disabled by default. Users can opt in via Settings → Writing. If you had RTC enabled during the beta testing period, it will be switched off after upgrading to RC1 because the option name changed. The Gutenberg plugin will keep RTC enabled to maintain a testing pathway.

The technical reason behind the RTC change: contributors discovered a cache invalidation problem where RTC’s sync data (stored in post meta) effectively disabled WordPress’s persistent post query caches while a user had the editor open. The team is working on moving sync data to a dedicated database table, but that work won’t be ready for 7.0.

Why It Matters

These are pragmatic decisions, not failures. Shipping a feature that degrades database performance for all sites — even those not using collaborative editing — would have been worse than delaying it. The client-side media pull is similarly practical: better to ship it polished in 7.1 than broken in 7.0.

What does ship in RC1 is still substantial: the Connectors API for AI integration, Content Guidelines, visual revision tracking, the Command Palette in the admin bar, new blocks (Icon, Breadcrumbs, Gallery Lightbox), and the refreshed wp-admin. See our complete 7.0 feature preview for the full list.

The final release date of April 9 at WordCamp Asia remains unchanged. Between RC1 (tomorrow) and the final release, expect 1–2 additional release candidates focused on bug fixes only — no new features will be added.

What You Should Do

Test RC1 on a staging site tomorrow. Download it from wordpress.org/wordpress-7.0-RC1.zip or update via the Beta Tester plugin. Focus on:

• Plugin and theme compatibility
• Admin UI changes — does your workflow still make sense?
• The Connectors screen (Settings → Connectors) if you plan to use AI features

Don’t test RTC in production. Even with the opt-in, Real-Time Collaboration still has known performance issues with cache invalidation. Wait for a dedicated fix (likely a dot release after 7.0).

Report bugs. RC means “release candidate” — this is the community’s last chance to catch issues before April 9. Report problems on WordPress Trac or the Alpha/Beta support forum.

Sources

• WordPress 7.0 Release Candidate 1 Delayed — Make WordPress Core
• WordPress 7.0’s Real-Time Collaboration Heads Into RC1 With Key Questions Still Open — The Repository
• WordPress 7.0 Release Party Schedule — Make WordPress Core