WordPress 5.7 Planning Roundup

The article has been edited on January 27, 2021, to confirm the schedule and the features included in the release.

After a successful WordPress 5.6 release, this post aims to provide a round-up of planning done so far for WordPress 5.7.

WordPress 5.7 Schedule

This cycle will have a similar timeframe than 5.6:

  • Alpha, 78 days – 5.6 had 84 days
  • BetaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process., 21 days – same as 5.6
  • RCrelease candidate One of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta)., 14 days – same as 5.6

Based on the tentative schedule and experiments from the past twelve months, this is the proposed schedule for the first of the four planned releases for 2021:

  • Alpha: 17 November 2020 trunktrunk A directory in Subversion containing the latest development code in preparation for the next major release cycle. If you are running "trunk", then you are on the latest revision. is open for 5.7 alpha contributions
  • Kickoff: 15 December 2020 first bugbug A bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. scrub of the new cycle
  • Planning roundup: 21 December 2020 (that’s this post!)
  • Betas: 2 February 2021 (eleven weeks from branching off trunk, seven weeks from kickoff)
  • Release Candidates: 23 February 2021 (three weeks from beta 1)
  • General Release: 9 March 2021 (two weeks from release candidaterelease candidate One of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). 1)

WordPress 5.7 Scope

The main goal for 2021 is Full Site Editing via GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ (edited for clarity: this is not THE scope for 5.7 but an ongoing effort 😊).
You can read the status report, join the FSE Outreach program, check the progress on the GitHub issue used to overview to progress, and dive into contributing to it from there!

For WP5.7, these are some of the features that will be likely worked on:

As with every release, all component maintainers and teams are invited to prioritize their bug-fixes and enhancements for 5.7. Look out for the 5.7 report in Trac to see what is getting milestoned and help the project gets those tickets to the end line!”

In addition, all components and teams are invited to continue polishing current interactions and making the UIs more user-friendly.

JB and I are collecting all the proposals from the open call for tickets: we will submit them to the relevant component maintainers so they can evaluate if there are enough resources to address them during this release cycle and update their status. If they are, they will be milestoned for 5.7, so turn on your notifications if you haven’t already.

Please bear in mind, if a ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. is still waiting for review, has no patchpatch A special text file that describes changes to code, by identifying the files and lines which are added, removed, and altered. It may also be referred to as a diff. A patch can be applied to a codebase for testing., or no owner, it is unlikely (not impossible) that it will land in 5.7. This shouldn’t stop you from continuing to work on it, gather feedback, and ultimately polish it enough to have it in a future release. Shepherding tickets is as vital as submitting patches.

WordPress 5.7 Leads

This area is intentionally incomplete. JB, Josepha, and I are reaching out to people that have expressed interest in being part of 5.7. 

You can read about each role in our handbook. If you are interested, leave a comment on this post, and we will reach out to you too.

  • Release LeadRelease Lead The community member ultimately responsible for the Release.: Matt
  • Release Co-ordinator: Ebonie Butler
  • Triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. PM: Tonya Mork
  • Core Tech: Sergey Biryukov
  • Editor Tech: Robert Anderson
  • Design: Tim Hengeveld 
  • Docs: JB Audras
  • AccessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility): Sarah Ricker
  • Test: Monika Rao

Release specific leads

Once we have final confirmation of scope, we will annouce additional focus leads, if needed.

Thanks @chanthaboune and @audrasjb for the help with the post.
Edited for clarity about scope (FSE is not THE scope, it’s an ongoing effort) and tickets in milestone (unlikely to happen vs. impossible to happen)

#5-7, #planning