Alongside beta versions 3 and 4, we now know a bit more about the future of Gutenberg’s “Phase 3,” focused on real-time collaboration, which is expected to arrive with WordPress 7.0.
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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 November 3 to 9, 2025.
WordPress 6.9 Beta 3 and Beta 4 mark the final stretch of development before the Release Candidates. These versions include fixes and refinements following earlier testing, while keeping the final release date of December 2, 2025.
Beta 4 was released as an additional version to address issues found in template management and the Notes feature. Ultimately, the new template activation and deactivation functionality has been temporarily reverted and will instead be introduced in WordPress 7.0.
The Gutenberg Phase 3 project continues its progress focused on collaboration. The goal is to improve teamwork and collaborative workflows within the editor.
Real-time collaboration is one of the cornerstones of Phase 3. The team is developing an infrastructure that allows multiple users to edit simultaneously, see each other’s presence in the document, and share a synchronized history of actions. This system is based on Yjs, a technology that ensures fast, secure synchronization and is already being tested on WordPress VIP before its core integration.
For asynchronous collaboration, WordPress 6.9 introduces the Notes feature, which allows users to leave comments directly on blocks within the editor. Notes can be resolved, replied to, or deleted without leaving the editing environment, improving communication among authors, editors, and reviewers without relying on external tools.
Lastly, the redesign of the admin area continues with the development of DataViews and DataForm, components that modernize the interface and unify the visual experience across screens. These systems aim to deliver a more coherent, customizable, and accessible navigation, laying the groundwork for the upcoming redesigned WordPress admin.
Gutenberg 22.0 is a quiet release focused on quality and bug fixes, but it introduces two notable advancements. The first is real-time synchronization of post_meta, which improves collaboration by keeping elements such as footnotes or custom metadata up to date while multiple users edit the same content.
The second is a new theme package with design tokens, which will serve as the foundation for the future design system in Gutenberg and the new set of UI components. This brings the editor closer to a consistent, modern visual framework.
Smaller enhancements were also added: breadcrumb block compatibility with archive pages, a new monospaced font for the Math block, and an option to display full comments in the recent comments block.
The Core team has proposed focusing this quarter on creating and refining team roadmaps. The goal is to gather and document all existing plans, evaluate how they are maintained, and communicate a unified format that each team can adopt. Additionally, they plan to create a central page at wordpress.org/roadmap that compiles major active projects without replacing each team’s own roadmap.
In parallel, new collaborations will be promoted with other groups like WP Credits, Five for the Future, and WordCamp Tooling, while supporting initiatives that recognize less-visible contributions. These efforts aim to strengthen inter-team coordination and highlight cross-functional work within the WordPress ecosystem.
On the Developers Blog, a post explains how WordPress 6.9 takes an important step by allowing forms to be styled via the theme.json file — a long-requested feature by the community. This first phase focuses on text fields and dropdown menus, meaning themes and developers can define borders, colors, shadows, or spacing directly in the theme configuration, without external CSS.
The new system uses multiple selectors, extending the global design approach to form elements. These styles apply site-wide, even to forms from plugins or core blocks like comments or search.
The Documentation team is rethinking how to recognize contributions more fairly and meaningfully. Discussions focused on differentiating between smaller contributions, like fixing typos, and larger ones, such as writing or maintaining full documentation. The team is also reviewing existing recognition systems like badges, props, and mentions, with the goal of applying them more consistently — even during weekly meetings or team posts.
They also aim to define clear growth paths for contributors who want to get more involved — from occasional helpers to area maintainers for HelpHub or DevHub — possibly introducing creditable titles like “Technical Writer (Docs Team).” The ultimate goal is to build a transparent pathway that recognizes both visibility and long-term contribution value, strengthening professional growth and belonging within the WordPress project.
The Community team announced that the WordPress Credits program has updated its sponsorship guidelines to ensure a more meaningful impact. From now on, companies will no longer be able to sponsor only tools or resources — they must also sponsor one or more mentors, reinforcing the program’s educational mission.
Sponsors can contribute in three main ways: funding mentors, combining mentorship with tools, or offering alternative support such as scholarships or admin team assistance. The change aims to strengthen the link between education and contribution, ensuring that students receive real guidance from experienced community members as they develop their first open-source projects.
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!
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