July 2022 brought a lot of exciting announcements and proposals for the WordPress project, from an updated timeline for the WordPress 6.1 release, to design updates on WordPress.org. Read on to learn more about the latest news from the community.

WordPress 6.1 development cycle is now published

Mark your calendars! The WordPress 6.1 development cycle has been published along with its release team. The expected release date has been updated to November 1, 2022, to incorporate feedback received on the first proposed schedule.

In the meantime, you can upgrade WordPress to version 6.0.1. This maintenance release became available for download on July 12, 2022, and includes several updates since WordPress 6.0 in May 2022.

Want to get more involved with WordPress? Join Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy, as she guides you through the five stages of contribution in a recent episode of WP Briefing.

A new look for the WordPress Homepage and Download page

Following the revamp of WordPress.org/News and the Gutenberg page, further design updates are coming to WordPress.org to create a fresh and modern user experience that reflects the future of WordPress.

The WordPress.org home and download pages will be the next pieces to get a refreshed look and feel. The redesign project kicked off on July 8, 2022, and the development work is already underway.

Take a look at the design mockups and join the conversation.

Gutenberg versions 13.6, 13.7, and 13.8 are here

Three new versions of Gutenberg have been released since last month’s edition of The Month in WordPress:

• Gutenberg 13.6 shipped on July 6, 2022. It includes 26 bug fixes and accessibility enhancements. This release also builds on previous work to expand theme.json and to allow you to create a cohesive design across blocks.
• Gutenberg 13.7 brings an updated modal design, the ability to apply block locking to inner blocks, and new template types, to name a few highlights. It was released on July 20, 2022.
• The latest Gutenberg release, version 13.8, went live on August 3, 2022. It comes with ​​fluid typography support among other enhancements, a new feature that will allow you to define text size that can scale and adapt to changes in screen size.

Follow the “What’s new in Gutenberg” posts to stay on top of the latest updates.

Team updates: WordPress mobile app changes, pattern previews, Five for the Future improvements

• The Mobile Team announced last week that it will be refocusing the WordPress mobile app on core features. To better serve the needs of all app users and reduce confusion, the Jetpack and WordPress.com features will be moved to a separate app in a gradual process targeted for completion later this year.
• The Community Team is looking for supporters to help reactivate WordPress meetups around the world.
• As part of the ongoing efforts to improve the Five for the Future (5ftF) initiative, the Meta Team added automated recognition for a number of non-code contributions. Check out this post to learn more about other proposed improvements to the program.
• The WordPress.org Theme Directory introduced a new feature that allows visitors to preview patterns bundled in a theme without requiring installation.
• The Design Team proposed to release a curated set of style variations designed by the community (instead of a new default theme) for WordPress 6.1.
• Josepha Haden Chomphosy reflected on progress towards the 2022 goals of the WordPress project in this mid-year review.
• Over the past few months, the Training Team published six tutorials along with a variety of lesson plans and online workshops. See what’s new in this summary post.
• Curious about how the WordPress 6.0 release process went? Read this WordPress 6.0 retrospective recap for insights.
• The Themes Team shared a follow-up post to address questions about the use of locally-hosted Google fonts in themes.
• There is an open call for a new Accessibility Team Representative.
• The Performance Team has a new dedicated Make blog. Follow updates on their work and proposals at make.wordpress.org/performance.
• The July 2022 edition of the Polyglots Monthly Newsletter is live.
• The latest edition of People of WordPress highlights Carla Doria, a customer support specialist from South America.
• July’s Meetup Organizer Newsletter features several tips and tools for engaging and growing your community.

WP Briefing celebrated World Wide Web Day 2022 with a special episode! Tune in to hear contributors from the community reflect on how WordPress impacts their world.

Feedback & testing requests

• Josepha Haden Chomphosy suggested giving Full Site Editing (FSE) a more user-friendly name. Share your thoughts in this post.
• The WordPress Notifications Feature project is ready to begin collecting feedback. Efforts to help test the feature plugin and comments are welcome.
• The Training Team kicked off a discussion to gather feedback on how WordPress certifications should be approached.
• The Performance Team shared a few proposals to integrate new features targeting the WordPress 6.1 release. You can help by testing, reporting bugs, or contributing fixes and ideas:
  • Proposal: Persistent Object Cache and Full Page Cache Site Health Checks
  • Proposal: Add a dominant color background to images
• Version 20.4 of WordPress for Android and iOS is available for testing.

The Community Team is calling on all meetup members and organizers to complete the 2021-2022 Annual Meetup Survey. Your feedback will help strengthen the WordPress meetup program for years to come. Please respond and help spread the word.

WordCamp updates

• WordCamp US is only five weeks away! The organizing team announced the Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship recipients for this year. Congratulations to Margherita Pelonara, Simona Simionato, and Pooja Derashri!
• 20 organizations have stepped forward to support underrepresented speakers from all over the world to get to WordCamp US 2022. Visit the Underrepresented Speaker Support page to donate to the fund or ask for support if you are part of an underrepresented group.
• WordCamp Asia 2023 opened a new Call for Speakers and Media Partners. The deadline for speaker applications is September 15, 2022. The organizing team also shared more details on the ticket release timeline.
• Don’t miss these upcoming WordCamps:
  • WordCamp Jinja, Uganda on September 2-3, 2022
  • WordCamp Kathmandu, Nepal on September 3-4, 2022
  • WordCamp US in San Diego, California on September 9-11, 2022
  • WordCamp Netherlands, The Netherlands on September 15-16, 2022
  • WordCamp Pontevedra, Spain on September 24-25, 2022

Join #WPDiversity with a free, online speaker workshop for Indian women in the WordPress community. The event will take place on September 24-25, 2022. Sign up now!

Have a story that we should include in the next issue of The Month in WordPress? Let us know by filling out this form.

The following folks contributed to this edition of The Month in WordPress: @chaion07, @laurlittle, @mysweetcate, @sereedmedia, @dansoschin, @rmartinezduque.