Are the new features worth getting excited about?

WordPress 7.0 is shaping up to be one of the biggest releases in recent years, or simply the most ambitious rebranding of what WordPress thinks it is.

Maybe I’m not being direct enough, so let me put it another way: Version 7.0 represents the biggest change in what WordPress actually is. wants to be in years.

We all know WordPress as a tool where a person writes a post, clicks Publish, and occasionally encounters a “someone else is editing this” lock screen.

Version 7.0 introduces concurrent editing that’s very reminiscent of Google Docs, adds a vendor-agnostic AI layer, and also changes post revisions — an old-school feature of WordPress core — to make them more visual.

1. Real-Time Collaboration (RTC)

This is the flagship feature of WordPress 7.0. The idea is quite simple: you can now work on content (post, page) with other people in real time. You’ll see the changes they make as they happen, and they’ll see yours.

In principle, this is exactly what you will find in Google Docs.

Some key details:

• Uses CRDT (Conflict-free Replicated Data Types) for conflict resolution
• Built on HTTP polling for universal host compatibility
• Initially limited to 2 simultaneous collaborators – explained as a necessity to protect hosts
• Hosting companies can exchange their own transport/storage providers; JS filters allow developers to adjust polling intervals
• Disabled when metaboxes are presentwhich tells plugin developers to migrate how they implement things in the future

Should you care? This real-time collaboration is a nice feature, but it’s clearly aimed at professional users and large newsrooms. Personally, I don’t know how useful this can be for the average WordPress user or even an experienced user. For example, as a writer, I can’t imagine anything I would hate more than another person doing anything to my draft while I’m writing it. 🥲

And it’s not just me who’s not entirely convinced. This feature was supposed to be enabled by default, as far as I know. However, after some backlash, it is now a membership option.

Still, what we’re seeing now is just the first iteration of this feature, and I’m still hopeful to see where it evolves in a year or two.

2. AI Foundation (API Connectors + WP AI client)

This is arguably the most cutting-edge feature in version 7.0.

Everyone is doing AI these days, so it’s no wonder WordPress wants a piece of the pie too. However, the team chose a different path. Instead of providing AI features in itself, it provides the scaffolding/framework to enable other developers to deliver those AI features.

Here’s what that means and what you’ll find in WordPress 7.0:

• A new Connectors screen in wp-admin. This is where users can manage their API keys for OpenAI, Claude, Gemini and anyone else.

• Then there is the Connectors API. Plugins can use this whenever they need to connect to external services. As I understand it, it was intended to handle connections to AI APIs, but it can actually be used for much more than that. Basically any plugin that requires external service credentials can use it.
• wp_ai_client_prompt(). This is a unique, vendor-independent PHP function that developers can use to send a prompt to an LLM.

Should you care? I’m obviously not the best developer, but even I have to admit that this architecture is pretty clever. WordPress aims to empower people and help them get the most out of possible AI integrations while managing the basics of AI communication.

WordPress wants to be neutral here. There is no such thing as a “WordPress-branded AI builder.” But if you want to create one, WordPress will make it easy for you.

If you’re a developer, being able to build AI-powered features without managing credentials yourself is a big help!

3. Visual revisions

I love the old revisions screen:

Now there’s a new one. It’s on the main post-editing screen instead of being a separate page. It gives you a more visual overview of changes with an easy-to-understand color-coding system.

Specifically:

• There is now a new timeline slider in the header to navigate versions.
• Color-coded changes: yellow = changed, red = removed, green = added.
• A mini-map on the scrollbar showing where changes exist.
• A “Restore” button replaces “Publish” when browsing history.

Should you care? This arguably makes the reviews screen more usable for non-developers, but I’m not sure WordPress really understands the typical user of this feature.

Here’s what I mean: If someone has never used revisions before, I’m not sure this change will convince them to give it a try. On the other hand, for those who used revisions, this might be a downgrade. Here’s what the new revisions don’t do (unlike the old ones):

• You don’t see the actual source code (HTML), just the rendered content.
• You cannot compare two revisions. This is only a comparison of an earlier version of an article (selected via the cursor) with the one directly preceding it.

So, will the new user interface be beneficial? Be the judge. It is surely worth testing.

Outstanding developers 🛠️

PHP block recording only

Yes, it’s finally here! Now that we have it, it’s kind of interesting that this wasn’t a feature before.

In short, you can now build blocks using just PHP, meaning no JavaScript building steps are needed.

Call register_block_type with the autoRegister a flag and a render_callback. WordPress automatically generates sidebar controls for the appropriate attributes. This can be perfect for simple server-rendered blocks where you don’t need interactivity. 👍

Template Overrides for Custom Blocks

Template Overrides were designed to allow you to use synchronized templates while modifying specific content per instance, with only the layout remaining consistent.

This was previously limited to the Title, Paragraph, Button and Image blocks. Now any block that supports block bindings will also support template replacements. This can be a huge advantage if you frequently use custom blocks for client work.

Client-side capabilities API

This is the JavaScript equivalent of the server-side Abilities API in version 6.9. It includes two packages: @wordpress/abilities (pure state) and @wordpress/core-abilities (Connected to REST).

The mention of “WebMCP browser agents, extensions, and integrations” hints at WordPress’ future direction for AI agent interoperability.

Custom CSS per block instance

This is another feature that it’s surprising we had to wait so long for.

If you want to add custom CSS to a block, there is now a CSS entry directly in the block sidebar. You only write declarations (no selector needed) and use & for nesting.

Content design and editing wins 🎨

Navigation Overlays

Enjoy full control over mobile burger menus with customizable overlay template portions. There are four built-in templates, an “always on top” toggle for submenus, and the ability to create pages directly from the navigation block (which can be very useful, IMO).

Content-driven template editing

Templates now default to content-only mode. This means you see the editable text/image fields in a clean sidebar instead of the full block tree. You can always “detach” yourself to take full control.

This can be very cool for client transfers…so they can’t accidentally break layouts.

Viewport-based block visibility

You can now show or hide any block by device type (desktop, tablet, mobile) directly from the toolbar.

Previously, we needed one or two plugins for this functionality. Now it’s super simple in WordPress core.

Reminder of the command palette 🤔

This is only partly new, but I wanted to remind everyone that WordPress now has its own command palette, available from anywhere.

Just knock ⌘K / Ctrl+Kand you will see this:

Use it to find any WordPress setting.

Good outing or not?

A good one, that’s for sure.

While I may not be very excited about a few new features, the general direction is still relevant. It sends a clear message about what WordPress wants to be and, perhaps more importantly, what it wants to be in this new “age of AI” (is that what people call it?).

I’m really excited to see how AI Connectors evolve and all the great things people will build from it! This is essentially WordPress taking on the role of a neutral orchestration layer for AI services rather than betting on just one thing.

Congratulations to everyone who participated in this one! 👏

What do you think of WordPress 7.0? Is there anything in particular that you are passionate about?

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