What’s Coming in WordPress 6.9: Smarter Editing, Collaboration, and Performance

Ever felt like the WordPress editor is almost…getting in the way?

It’s great to have many ways to customize your site. That’s partly what we love about WordPress.

But when you’re just tweaking text or inserting images, you don’t need a million choices. It’s also quite confusing for new site owners.

WordPress 6.9 is designed to address this exact issue.

Scheduled for release on December 2nd, the new version is putting content in the spotlight — with new editing modes and enhanced collaboration features.

That’s not all. The latest WordPress release is set to introduce improved APIs, upgraded performance, and more.

Here’s a closer look at all the major updates.

1. Content Takes Centre Stage in the Simplified Editor Mode

WordPress used to be a blogging platform. Somewhere to write your thoughts and share them with the world.

Things are a little different now. WordPress powers a wide range of sites, from e-commerce stores to design portfolios.

To cover all bases, WordPress added loads of customization options. The current editor allows you to change every detail of your posts and pages.

But what if you just want to write and share? That’s where the new simplified editor will make a difference.

👉From WordPress 6.9 onwards, you’ll have two modes to choose from: “Write” and “Design.”

The “Write” mode keeps things really simple, like a basic text editor. Yes, you can add other media (images, videos, embeds, etc.), but it’s essentially a click-and-type experience, with formatting options in the side menu.

When you want to move things around, change font sizes, and introduce some color, that’s when you switch to “Design” mode. This feels more like the current block editor, with the full range of options.

What this means for you: You’re going to waste less time swatting away menus while you’re creating content.

Advanced Editing Features

Another new feature is the option to hide blocks on your live site, but keep them editable behind the scenes.

You can already achieve this using third-party plugins, like Block Visibility, but soon, it’ll be part of the core platform.

We think this could be the start of a new trend.

Adding more features to the current editor would make things way too complicated, but when you can switch between modes, it’s possible to group related tools together. We could even see an “Advanced mode” at some point. Exciting stuff!

What this means for you: You no longer have to create separate draft pages or full staging sites. Just hide the blocks that are work-in-progress, and keep the rest live.

WordPress has a useful review system, allowing site admins to check changes before they go live. And what if you want to work together on a new page or piece of content?

Enter block-level commenting, another major addition in WordPress 6.9.

Aimed at teams, agencies, and freelancers, this feature allows you to leave a note for fellow users. That could mean ideas, feedback, your preferred takeout orders…anything you like.

Click on any paragraph, image, or section and add a comment that stays attached to that exact element. Your colleagues or clients can see these comments in context while editing, eliminating any guesswork.

The system tracks comment resolution, so you know when feedback has been addressed. Oh, and don’t worry — comments won’t appear on your live site.

Overall, this addition should make the WordPress editor feel more like Google Docs.

What this means for you: Getting feedback on your work should be much easier. Instead of going back and forth via other platforms, you can drop a note in the original context.

3. Developers Can Add Interactive Features Without Complex Code

WordPress developers have long faced a tricky choice: stick with basic WordPress functionality or mess with complex JavaScript frameworks to access interactive features. Neither option felt ideal.

WordPress 6.9 bridges this gap with two powerful new APIs:

Interactivity API Updates

The newly enhanced Interactivity API improves the way WordPress handles interactive features.

Instead of only updating HTML content when users move between pages, WordPress can now automatically update the design (CSS) and load any scripts (JavaScript) requested by blocks.

That’s a pretty huge upgrade. It opens up cool stuff like:

• Letting users submit comments without the page reloading
• Instantly showing a “No results found” message when filtering or searching
• Letting the “Post Content” block work in more flexible layouts
• Only loading the exact styles and scripts needed for specific blocks, based on what they contain or how they’re used

What this means for you: Interactive features on your site should feel much smoother and more responsive — like using an app.

New Abilities API

The Abilities API introduces a standardized way to list the features of plugins, themes, and custom functions. The register includes a brief description, input and output formats, and more.

That sounds very nice but…what’s the point?

It’s all about AI.

Having a neat schema makes it much easier for AI models to understand the various components of your website. That means you can build complex workflows that reference specific features.

For example, the API describes what your SEO plugin does (“Analyzes post content for SEO improvements.”) and the type of outputs it produces:

‘output_schema’ => ]
‘type’ => ‘number’,
‘description’ => __( ‘The score for the content in percentage.’, ‘my-seo-plugin’ ),
‘required’ => true,
],

💡Nerd note: If you fancy taking these APIs for a spin, take advantage of our SSH access and staging environments. These features allow you to experiment with interactive features safely before deploying to production.

What this means for you: It’s now way easier to construct reliable AI workflows that hook into your WordPress site.

4. Page Loading Is Even Faster

Do you feel the need…the need for speed? Well then, you’re going to like WordPress 6.9.

The new release delivers major performance improvements, thanks to some tweaks under the hood.

To be more specific, WordPress’ navigation handling has been optimized to speed up page transitions. The system now preloads more resources, so there’s less to load when visitors jump to the next view.

The upgrades should also result in faster overall loading times.

What this means for you: A smoother user experience for anyone checking out your site.

5. There’s No Default Theme This Time

Since as far back as we can remember (well, 2005 to be exact), WordPress has always come with a default theme. It‘s usually something pretty bland, with a title to match the year of release.

But this time, there’s no default theme.

According to the WordPress development team, the reason is, “The pace of this release and the maturity of block themes over recent years.”

Translation: they’ve been prioritizing upgrades to the CMS and haven’t had time to make a new theme. Plus, there are now many great themes that support block editing.

What this means for you: Probably not a lot. Even if you’re building a new site from scratch, you can just install a theme like Astra or build your site with Liftoff AI.

As part of this release, WordPress 6.9 also adds powerful new template management features in the Site Editor — including the ability to duplicate and deactivate individual templates.

Here’s how the new Deactivate and Duplicate options appear for active templates in the Site Editor:

That means you can keep multiple versions of a template, switch between them, or temporarily turn one off without deleting it entirely. It’s especially handy if you’re experimenting with layouts or running seasonal designs.

You can also Activate custom templates directly from the Custom Templates view:

What Does WordPress 6.9 Mean for Your Website?

WordPress 6.9 won’t radically change how you manage your website.

Yes, there are some new features — inline commenting and the Abilities API are notable upgrades.

Overall though, this update is more about fine-tuning; like a performance package for your car.

The new editor modes help to reduce clutter, simplifying the work of site owners. The new API options allow developers to create powerful tools without time-consuming workarounds. And the upgrades to performance should improve the user experience for everyone who interacts with your site.

If you’re keen to try it, you can get early access to WordPress 6.9 via the WordPress Beta Tester program.

We would recommend using a staging site for this pre-release version — you can set one up in minutes with our managed WordPress hosting plans.

And be sure to subscribe to our newsletter for a full breakdown when the final release drops!

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