Despite earlier indications of a potential delay, WordPress is indeed gearing up for another significant major release this year. WordPress 6.9 has now been officially scheduled to ship on December 2, 2025. This confirmation follows a proposed release schedule and a call for volunteers published by 10up-sponsored core contributor Jeffrey Paul, signaling an active acceleration in development.

The decision to bring WordPress 6.9 forward was a central topic during Tuesday’s quarterly core committers meeting with project leadership. This marks a notable pivot from April, when Executive Director Mary Hubbard had announced there wouldn’t be another major release until 2026. At that time, the decision was attributed to “ongoing legal matters,” understood to be a reference to the WP Engine lawsuit, and also followed Automattic’s temporary pause in WordPress contributions, which had previously disrupted development timelines and delayed the progress of several key features. The renewed commitment to a 2025 release underscores a refreshed momentum within the project.

The comprehensive 90-minute meeting, conducted under the Chatham House Rule to foster open discussion, brought together committers and leadership. Their agenda included critical topics such as detailed release planning for 6.9, the ongoing administrative interface redesign, the classification of plugins, strategies for supporting older WordPress versions, the vital concept of data liberation, the long-term vision for default themes, and the introduction of the new Campus Credit pilot program. These discussions highlight the breadth of considerations shaping the future of the platform.

What’s Planned for WordPress 6.9 and Mullenweg’s Vision

According to Hubbard’s summary of the meeting, committers “explored potential directions” for WordPress 6.9, with significant discussion centered on advancing in-progress features. These include crucial design and writing experience enhancements, updates to the versatile command palette, and continued foundational work on the Block Bindings, Interactivity, and HTML APIs. These efforts aim to provide a more intuitive and powerful user experience for developers and content creators alike.

A notable point of discussion also revolved around the early promotion of a canonical AI plugin. This plugin is envisioned to focus primarily on backend infrastructure, such as the emerging Abilities API, rather than directly integrating AI functionality into the WordPress core. This strategic approach allows for flexible and extensible AI capabilities without overburdening the core system. Currently, Automattic-sponsored contributor Anne McCarthy is actively drafting the comprehensive 6.9 roadmap, which will detail these and other initiatives.

However, recent public statements from WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg suggest an even broader wishlist for 6.9. In May, TechCrunch reported his desire for a 6.9 release this year that includes a substantial admin refresh. More recently, during an interview on the Decoder podcast last week, Mullenweg confidently stated that collaborative editing would also ship this year, adding the caveat, “Murphy willing,” referencing the common adage about potential complications. Both an admin refresh and collaborative editing represent monumental development efforts. As one core committer shared with The Repository, “I don’t think either are realistic” for full completion in this release cycle if they are to be executed with the necessary thoughtfulness and effectiveness. Nevertheless, significant progress on these features could certainly be made within 6.9, with their full realization potentially targeting WordPress 7.0.

Mullenweg also mentioned on the Decoder podcast that Automattic continued developing features during its period of paused contributions, hinting that some of this work could eventually be integrated into the open-source project. He described the work as “real time and really exciting stuff.” While the specific features he referred to remain unclear and were not explicitly detailed during Tuesday’s meeting, this suggests a potential influx of new capabilities for future WordPress iterations.

Renewed Push for Admin Redesign with MP7 Plugin Consideration

A “significant portion” of Tuesday’s meeting was dedicated to the ongoing administrative interface redesign, as highlighted in Hubbard’s meeting notes. While no final decisions have been made, there was early consensus on exploring options for testing the redesign. This could involve integrating it as an opt-in experiment within the Gutenberg plugin or by developing a separate “MP7” plugin. The name “MP7” deliberately echoes “MP6,” a transformative “feature as a plugin” released in 2013, which played a pivotal role in shaping the administrative design overhaul introduced in WordPress 3.8. This historical precedent suggests a similar phased and community-driven approach to major UI changes.

Current efforts to redesign the WordPress admin have been strategically folded into Phase 3 of the Gutenberg roadmap, which specifically focuses on collaboration. This ambitious work commenced in 2023 when Gutenberg Lead Architect Matías Ventura unveiled his compelling vision for the admin design on WordPress.org. During the 2023 State of the Word address, Ventura provided a live demonstration of innovative new admin layouts, including dynamic grids and Kanban views, smarter field connections within the Site Editor, and impressive front-end performance leveraging the Interactivity API. Ventura emphasized, “The idea is that each WordPress can be unique yet familiar to everyone,” underscoring the goal of customizable yet intuitive user experiences.

Since these initial presentations, dedicated contributors have consistently driven the admin redesign forward. Their efforts include pioneering experiments in real-time collaboration, developing inline block commenting functionalities, and laying crucial foundational work for DataViews. The most recent public update on the progress of these collaboration efforts was published by Anne McCarthy last November, detailing the strides made in enhancing the collaborative capabilities of the WordPress admin.

Plugin Labels Under Review for Clearer Guidance

The meeting also delved into a comprehensive discussion of plugin classifications, including a careful review of what constitutes a “canonical” plugin. This ongoing effort aims to establish clearer definitions and guidelines, helping both users and contributors better understand the purpose and endorsement level of various plugins within the WordPress ecosystem. The canonical label, which has seen a resurgence in recent years, is specifically intended for community-developed plugins that extend WordPress Core in officially endorsed ways. During Tuesday’s discussions, committers explored applying this term more formally, especially in the context of the proposed AI plugin for WordPress 6.9, to ensure consistent understanding and application.

Other vital classifications currently in active use and under review include:

• Feature plugins: These are experimental plugins designed to test and iterate on potential core features before their wider integration.
• Support plugins: These are carefully maintained tools that provide essential compatibility or transitional functionality, such as the widely used Classic Editor plugin.
• Experimental plugins: These represent exploratory development efforts that are not necessarily destined for integration into the WordPress core but offer valuable insights and innovations.

A longer-term objective raised during the discussions was to significantly improve the discoverability of these various plugin types within the WordPress.org plugin directory. Additionally, the possibility of enabling contextual activation directly within the admin—for instance, turning on collaborative editing straight from the editor interface—was discussed as a future enhancement to streamline user workflows and plugin management.

Default Themes Under Scrutiny: Calls for a Pause

During Tuesday’s meeting, committers also critically assessed the future role and necessity of default themes within WordPress. Some participants questioned the traditional practice of releasing a new theme each year, highlighting the growing maintenance burden and suggesting that the project could instead focus more on spotlighting innovative patterns, diverse style variations, or robust starter templates. These alternatives could offer more flexibility and creativity without the overhead of entirely new default themes. Conversely, other contributors passionately argued that default themes continue to serve an invaluable role in showcasing new features, supporting user learning and onboarding, and actively inspiring creativity within the broader WordPress community.

This discussion echoed sentiments expressed in a recent and influential blog post by core committer Tammie Lister. Lister, who was sponsored by Automattic last year specifically to help clear the backlog of theme-related tickets, proposed a strategic pause in the development of new default themes. Her rationale was to redirect focus towards significantly improving existing design tools, enhancing educational resources, and fundamentally rethinking what a theme should embody in the evolving landscape of WordPress in 2025. Such a pause could allow for a deeper, more impactful evolution of how users interact with and customize their site's appearance.

What’s Next for WordPress Development

Following these crucial discussions, the conversation is ongoing within WordPress Slack, with technical planning for the admin redesign actively progressing in the #core-editor channel. As previously mentioned, Anne McCarthy is diligently drafting the public roadmap for WordPress 6.9, which will offer a detailed outline of features and development milestones. The next core committers meeting with project leadership is anticipated to take place in Q3, where further progress and strategic decisions will be made, continuing the collaborative journey of WordPress development.

Update, July 11, 2025: This story has been updated to include Jeffrey Paul’s latest release update, reflecting the most current information available regarding WordPress 6.9.