WordPress 5.7 is release at March 9, 2021.
WordPress 5.7 Features
The main goal for WordPress in 2021 is Full Site Editing via Gutenberg. WordPress 5.7 contributors anticipate working on the following features in the next release:
- Update WordPress Core to include current releases of the Gutenberg plugin
- Gutenberg: ship additional blocks, refine the UI, add tools for themes and design, and continue working on the widget screen
- Continue work on auto-updates and jQuery
Core Improvements
Lazy-load iframes – Enabled by adding the loading=”lazy” attribute to iframe tags on the front-end.
Migrating from HTTP to HTTPS – This process now happens in one click! URLs in the database are automatically replaced when the Site and WordPress Address are both using HTTPS. Also, Site Health now includes an HTTPS status check.
Standardize colors used in WP-Admin CSS to a single palette – The palette makes it easy to build components your users can read, because half the range gives you great contrast with white type and a half with black, according to current accessibility guidelines.
Ongoing cleanup after update to jQuery 3.5.1 – jQuery deprecations in WordPress Core and bundled themes show up a lot less often, and the notifications make more sense to the user.
New Robots API – Allows the filter directives to be included in the ‘robots’ meta tag. Also, the directive max-image-preview:large is now included by default to allow large image previews to be displayed in search engines (unless the blog is marked as not being public).
Editor Improvements
Drag and drop – Blocks and block patterns can now be dragged directly into the post or page.
Full height alignment – Blocks like the Cover block now have an option to fill the entire screen size.
Block variations – The icon and description of a block variation is now shown in the block inspector, and a dropdown allows you to switch between the variations.
Reusable blocks – Increased usability and stability of the feature, and reusable blocks are now saved at the same time that the post is saved.
Other Block Enhancements – The Buttons block now includes vertical alignment options, and you can set the width of a button to a preset percentage. You can now change the icon size in the Social Icons block, and the font size in the List and Code blocks.
Under The Hood Changes
WordPress 5.7 will introduce new functions is_post_status_viewable() and is_post_publicly_viewable() to check if a post is publicly viewable.
WordPress 5.7 will add a filter hook to manipulate $user_data variable during retrieve_password() function. This will enable developers to perform custom validation checks during password resets.
Developers will be able to change the ‘Go to site’ link displayed in the login page footer by using a new login_site_html_link hookTwo new functions get_post_parent() and has_post_parent() will be available in WordPress 5.7 to determine if a post has a parent and to get the related parent post as an object.