WordPress 6.9 begins its path toward its general release with the first beta version, which already includes all the new features of this update.
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Program transcript
Hello, I’m Alicia Ireland, and you’re listening to WPpodcast, bringing the weekly news from the WordPress Community.
In this episode, you’ll find the information from October 20 to 26, 2025.
WordPress 6.9 now has its first beta available, marking the start of the last major update of the year. This version focuses on improving site editing, with more intuitive template management, the arrival of the Abilities API, and progress in the Interactivity API. It also introduces the Notes feature, which allows leaving comments directly on blocks, enhancing collaboration in content creation.
Among the highlights are the Accordion block, the Terms Query block, the option to hide blocks without deleting them, and border radius presets to maintain visual consistency across themes. In addition, global styles are now extended to forms, the command palette has been refined, and there are improvements to DataViews, the HTML API, and overall performance.
The Test team has scheduled several review sessions through the end of November to ensure stability before the official release, planned for December 2, 2025. The community is encouraged to test the beta in staging environments and share bugs or suggestions through GitHub or Slack.
As mentioned, the new version officially includes the Accordion block, which allows collapsible content sections—ideal for FAQs or lengthy sections. On the Developers Blog, there’s a guide article for developers explaining how to customize its design to fit any theme.
Each accordion consists of four blocks: the main container, the individual items, the headers, and the panels. These can be styled via the theme.json file or with custom CSS, adjusting borders, colors, shadows, and typography.
Additionally, style variations can be created to offer different looks within the editor, making it easier for users to choose predefined designs without touching code. This allows themes to include fully customized accordions consistent with their visual identity.
The Core team has proposed updating the WordPress coding standards to explicitly state that all PHP files must use the .php extension.
The reason is to ensure compatibility and security across servers, as some environments, such as Debian or Fedora, interpret extensions like .php3 or .phtml differently. Always using .php prevents code from being displayed as plain text or not executing properly.
This consistency also allows tools like PHP Code Sniffer and the WordPress Coding Standards to correctly analyze all PHP files, strengthening code quality and uniformity across the ecosystem.
The Playground team has launched over 30 improvements in recent months, including support for naming saved projects, better deployment in self-hosted environments, and a refreshed interface with clearer icons. Documentation has also been expanded, translations added in Japanese, French, Spanish, and Portuguese, and new examples included for PHP-WASM and CLI.
Technical highlights include step-by-step debugging with PHP.wasm in PHP Storm and Visual Studio Code, as well as progress in SQLite to improve compatibility with MySQL and tools like phpMyAdmin.
This reinforces Playground’s role as a fast, accessible WordPress development environment, combining performance, portability, and clearer documentation to make experimentation easier for developers and educators alike.
The Community team is looking for developers to improve WordPress event tools, including CampTix, GatherPress, and the events.wordpress.org platform. Planned improvements range from a more modern ticketing system to a future WordPress Events App.
CampTix needs new features such as invitation letter generation, better multi-purchase flow, and more reporting options. GatherPress requires real-world testing and technical support to integrate with WordPress.org, along with messaging and data export capabilities.
Improvements are also proposed for the events website: budgeting tools, planning features, and user experience enhancements. A mobile app for WordCamp is also being considered, featuring messaging, networking, and interactive maps, inspired by a prototype already in use in Spain.
And finally, this podcast is distributed under a Creative Commons license as a derivative version of the podcast in Spanish; you can find all the links for more information, and the podcast in other languages, at WPpodcast .org.
Thanks for listening, and until the next episode!