The latest version of the Gutenberg plugin introduces the first phase of the accordion block, which is expected to be included in WordPress 6.9.
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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 August 25 to 31, 2025.
Gutenberg 21.5 introduces the accordion block as its main feature, which could make its way into WordPress 6.9. It’s still in experimental mode but should already be functional for testing.
It also extends the Command Palette to the entire admin dashboard, not just the Editor, and introduces a default border-radius system applied consistently to all blocks that should include it.
On the Developer Blog, an advanced guide was published on refactoring multi-block plugins. Starting from a simpler base, it proposes a more robust approach that makes scaling and maintaining plugins easier. The new organization separates static, dynamic, and interactive blocks into individual folders under src/blocks, while block registration is automated through a blocks-manifest.php file. This eliminates the need to manually register each block and leverages modern APIs depending on the WordPress version for cleaner management.
The guide also covers adding interactive blocks using specific templates and adapting the build process with Webpack. It explains how to include shared assets via separate enqueue functions and how to extend Webpack’s default configuration to compile those scripts alongside the rest of the plugin. This modular architecture significantly improves performance and maintainability for plugins with many blocks.
WordCamp US 2025 took place in Portland from August 26–29 at the Oregon Convention Center, bringing together developers, designers, content creators, and WordPress enthusiasts. The event opened with Contributor Day, a collaborative session where participants of all levels contributed to teams like Core, Hosting, Test, AI, and Community, working on code, documentation, testing, and improvements. Both in-person and remote options were available.
The main conference days included Showcase Day, featuring live demos, real-world case studies, and inspiration around design, accessibility, performance, AI, and more. Highlights included “The System is the Strategy” by Tammie Lister on design systems, and “Unlock Developer Superpowers with AI” by Adam Silverstein on AI in workflows. There were also sessions highlighting stories from creators like YouTubers and WordPress influencers, alongside a lively Sponsor Hall that combined networking, demos, and even an arcade, reinforcing the community spirit.
The closing remarks came from Matt Mullenweg, who shared WordPress growth stats: over 124,000 new social media followers and more than a 10% increase in WordPress.org users. He also highlighted community projects such as WordPress Campus Connect, which has already benefited 570 students across 11 events, reflecting a 32.8% increase in events compared to 2024. Additionally, the Open Horizons scholarship was introduced, awarding $14,670 to six participants from five countries. The event concluded with a closing party in Portland and a message of gratitude to everyone involved.
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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