The WordPress 7.0 development phase is beginning, and one of the first steps is assembling the team that will lead this new release.

Remember that you can listen to this program from Pocket Casts, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts or subscribe to the feed directly.

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 January 5 to 11, 2026.

WordPress 7.0 has been announced with the start of release planning, with a proposed schedule that sets the final release date for April 9, 2026, a first beta on February 19, and a release candidate on March 19. This timeline is flexible and may be adjusted based on team decisions.

For this release, a Release Squad is being formed with different roles, including coordination, technical leads, triage, testing, and more, encouraging collaboration from contributors at all levels.

One of the technical details already announced is the end of support for PHP 7.2 and 7.3. Starting with this version, the minimum required version will be PHP 7.4, while the recommended version will remain PHP 8.3, aiming to improve project maintainability and encourage the community to use more recent PHP versions.

This decision is based on usage data showing that PHP 7.2 and 7.3 combined are below the 5 percent thr...

Preparing the team for WordPress 7.0