The final countdown has begun for WordPress 7.0, with the deployment of its fourth Release Candidate (RC4) alongside the developer Field Guide just six days before launch. These rollouts represent the final major milestones ahead of Wednesday’s scheduled debut.
Announced on Thursday via WordPress.org News by release coordinator Amy Kamala, RC4 follows last week’s RC3. That previous build completely removed real-time collaboration from core after months of technical difficulties with the feature.
This release also triggers a hard string freeze. All translatable strings are now locked, allowing the Polyglots team to finalize localization files before the official launch.
Published on the Make WordPress Core blog, the Field Guide outlines breaking changes and developer notes. Even without real-time collaboration – its former headline feature – version 7.0 remains massive, spanning 419 Core Trac tickets (including 76 enhancements and over 300 fixes) plus 411 Gutenberg enhancements and 486 bug fixes across the editor, dashboard, and AI systems.
A brand-new AI infrastructure now headlines the upcoming version. WordPress 7.0 introduces the WP AI Client – a provider-agnostic API that lets plugins call generative AI models through a standardized interface – alongside a Client-Side Abilities API that extends 6.9’s Abilities API to the browser. Furthermore, an AI Connectors screen pushed by co-founder Matt Mullenweg during the beta cycle gives users a central dashboard hub to manage AI service connections, powered by a Connectors API for plugin developers.
The modernized dashboard introduces a refreshed admin color scheme, view transitions across wp-admin, a ⌘K/Ctrl+K Command Palette shortcut, inline visual edits, and an iframed post editor. Additionally, the Notes feature first introduced in WordPress 6.9 has been updated with a new keyboard shortcut, dashboard widget, and team notifications.
On the design front, users will find new Headings and Breadcrumbs blocks, block-level custom CSS, and Navigation Block updates. For developers, the Field Guide details PHP-only block registration, Interactivity API updates, DataViews and DataForms, and new Block Bindings API iterations.
The software also raises its minimum supported environment to PHP 7.4. This requirement change has been in development since late last year.
Meanwhile, Gutenberg Times editor Birgit Pauli-Haack has maintained a collaborative “WordPress 7.0 Source of Truth” since March. The document acts as a community-driven companion tracking core adjustments for developers, theme designers, and site administrators.
The launch path faced significant delays. Originally set for April 9 during Contributor Day at WordCamp Asia 2026 in Mumbai, the timeline slipped due to unresolved real-time collaboration issues. The feature was officially dropped on May 8 and will be re-evaluated for version 7.1.
The final release is now slated for Tuesday. It lands six weeks late, but brings a refined feature set that cements the platform’s AI-driven trajectory.
