WordPress 7.0 arrives on May 20 and brings many updates, though some of the most notable have been left out. Here’s a rundown of everything in this new version.

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 May 11 to 17, 2026.

This week, after the release of RC3 and RC4 that were actual release candidates, WordPress 7.0 ships, and it’s not just any release. With over four hundred closed tickets in Core, nearly five hundred editor improvements, and nearly five hundred bug fixes, it’s the most feature-packed launch since Gutenberg was integrated.

Let’s run through everything it brings, starting with what users will notice first and ending with what matters to developers.

The first thing users will notice when updating to 7.0 is that the WordPress admin has a fresh look. The default color scheme, called “Fresh,” has been replaced with a new one called “Modern”: cleaner, with better contrast, improved typography, and a look more consistent with the block editor. This change is purely visual — no structural changes or CSS class renames. Additionally, navigating between admin screens now includes smooth transitions thanks to the browser’s View Transitions API, though they only activate if the user...