The countdown has begun. In a few days, at the beginning of November, WordPress 6.4 will be officially rolled out.
Looking for information about this upcoming major version? You’re in the right place.
This article will reveal the new features and improvements in WP 6.4, even before its release.
For example, you’ll get to know Twenty Twenty-Four, which could become your next favorite theme—who knows.
And to make everything perfectly clear, we have also included screenshots to show you exactly what some of the options you’ll soon be able to enjoy look like.
Discover the rest right away.
Practical information about WordPress 6.4
The third major version of 2023
The official launch of WordPress 6.4 is scheduled for Tuesday, November 7, 2023.
This will be the third and final major version of the CMS (Content Management System) to be released in 2023.
WP 6.4 will succeed WordPress 6.2 “Dolphy,” released on March 29, and WordPress 6.3 “Lionel,” which arrived on August 8, 2023.
Did you know? Each major release of WordPress is named after a jazz musician because the WordPress core developers share a love of this music.
For example, version 1.0 of the CMS is called Miles Davis. Version 6.3 is named Lionel, after the American jazzman Lionel Hampton.
According to the official WordPress 6.4 roadmap, this new version “focuses on enhancing elements of the WordPress experience, from the details of writing a new post to managing patterns (Editor’s note: block patterns) across your entire site. As part of these efforts, new features are being added, such as font management and a new default theme, and gaps are being filled in existing features, such as the addition of more tools to take design further.”
Six versions of the Gutenberg plugin (from 16.2 to 16.7) are to be integrated into WordPress 6.4 Core.
This major release also has a distinctive feature: it is led by an “underrepresented gender” team (underrepresented gender release squad).
The release lead for this version is Josepha Haden Chomphosy, the Executive Director of WordPress.
Finally, let’s remember that this WordPress 6.4 version is part of phase 3 of the Gutenberg project, launched in early 2023.
During this phase, for example, it will be possible to co-write content “more intuitively” using the WordPress editor.
How to test WordPress 6.4 safely?
If you are reading this article before the release of WordPress 6.4, be aware that you can test this new version before its official launch.
Want to embark on the adventure? There are several precautions to follow:
- never install a version under development (Beta or Release Candidate) on your live site. Only use a test site, locally for example. To do this, you can use the Local tool;
- always back up your site (files + database) before a test. To do this, use a backup plugin (e.g.: UpdraftPlus) or a site management tool such as ManageWP or WP Umbrella.
Info: Before the official launch of a major version, WordPress “releases” test versions known in particular as Beta and Release Candidate (RC). Most of the time, there are 3 of each, bearing in mind that a Release Candidate corresponds to a final version before the public launch of a major WordPress version.
These test versions allow contributors to report bugs and other technical issues… and to fix as many as possible before the official version is released.
Once you are on your test environment, install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin from your admin interface (Plugins > Add New menu).
Next, go to the Tools > Beta Testing menu in your WordPress back office, and check the following radio buttons:
- Bleeding edge;
- Beta/RC only.
Then click the “Save Changes” button:
Finish by going to the Dashboard > Updates menu, and upgrade to the most recent version of WordPress 6.4, if it is available.
In the example below, we installed WordPress version 6.4 Beta 1:
WordPress 6.4: what’s new
Twenty Twenty-Four, a new default theme
One of the major new features in WordPress 6.4 is the arrival of a new default theme, called Twenty Twenty-Four.
So far, nothing particularly groundbreaking, since WordPress usually releases a native theme once a year.
However, where Twenty Twenty-Four stands out from its predecessors is in its concept.
While previous native themes were, in a way, single-purpose, Twenty Twenty-Four is multi-purpose.
“The idea behind Twenty Twenty-Four is to make a default theme that can be used on any type of site, with any topic,” explains its introductory article.
To do this, you will benefit in particular from templates (page templates) and patterns (block patterns) to design a site in 3 different areas:
- entrepreneurs and small businesses;
- photographers and artists;
- writers and bloggers.
Based on blocks and compatible with the WordPress Site Editor, Twenty Twenty-Four offers the “Cardo” typeface for headings, and a sans serif font for paragraphs.
Modern and elegant, the theme also includes 9 different color palettes and more than thirty patterns:
Info: WordPress 6.4 will also allow you to benefit from revisions for the templates and template parts (a type of block used to structure your site) provided by your theme. This means you can go back at any time during the process of building your pages, if you feel it is necessary.
A font library in WordPress 6.4
Erratum: the font library has been postponed and will be available with WordPress version 6.5.
After Twenty Twenty-Four, you will also discover a very practical new feature: the Font Library.
This is a font library that will allow you to install, delete, and activate fonts from different sources (e.g., Google Fonts, your local computer), directly from your WordPress dashboard.
Like the Media Library, this Font Library is accessible regardless of your active theme, and you can select the activated fonts (available in the editor) for each theme:
New options related to blocks
Regarding blocks, new options will appear in WordPress 6.4:
- within the “Image” block, an option for you to enable (“Image lightbox”) will allow you to choose whether or not to display an image in a highlighted window when a user clicks on it.
- an automatic block auto-insertion feature (called “Block Hooks”) will be offered. For example, if you want to insert a menu on your site, WordPress may suggest adding a login or logout option using a block included in an active plugin on your site.
- more options for displaying posts are available within the “Query Loop” block (“Query Loop”). For example, you can decide how many pages you want to display.
Info: A block is essentially a container that embeds content (text, image, video, etc.) in the WordPress editor. Blocks are used without coding and can be moved wherever you want in your post or page.
The new blocks that were planned but… abandoned along the way
Initially, three new blocks were also supposed to appear with WordPress 6.4:
- the “ Table of Contents” block (“Table of Contents”);
- the “ Estimated Reading Time ” block (“Time to Read”);
- the “ Scrolling Marquee” block (“Scrolling Marquee”).
For various reasons, these three blocks will ultimately not be integrated into WP 6.4. For example, after discussions, contributors felt that the “Scrolling Marquee” block was not a “standard” block that everyone needs.
Its inclusion has therefore been dropped for now, to make room for other priorities:
As for the “Table of Contents” and “Estimated Reading Time” blocks, this is only a postponement. The release of the “Estimated Reading Time” block, for example, should be on the agenda for WordPress 6.5. Stay tuned.
Beyond these various new features, WordPress 6.4 also offers improvements to “current features and experiences”. We detail them in the next section.
What improvements does WP 6.4 bring?
The writing experience
One of the priorities of WordPress Core contributors is to make the writing process seamless and enjoyable.
Several efforts have been made in this direction in WordPress 6.4. Various options contained in certain blocks have been improved.
This is the case, for example, with the “List” block, which lets you create a bulleted list. From now on, the toolbar remains attached to its parent block whenever you switch to a list item contained in a child block.
This principle also applies to the “Navigation” and “Quote” blocks. In addition, it is also possible to orient text vertically, provided that your theme’s developers have opted for this option:
The interface and tools
The interface and the tools provided have also been simplified when you create a site or write a post.
With WordPress 6.4, you can now:
- duplicate blocks with a keyboard shortcut (CMD+Shift+d on Mac or Ctrl+Shift+d on PC), within List View;
- take advantage of a distraction-free mode to write in peace in the Site Editor. This mode was already available in the content editor.
- benefit from improvements to the Command Palette, as well as new commands. For example, it is possible to duplicate, copy, delete, and insert after/before.
Design
To enable more complex designs, improvements have been made to the tools offered by the editor in terms of design.
“These efforts range from block-specific changes, such as adding support for background images on the Group block, to larger efforts, such as extending theme.json to provide spacing size presets,” WordPress explains.
Info: The theme.json file is the configuration file for a block-based theme.
As for Global Styles, contributors worked on “more technical updates in theme.json, through to more UI-focused work around the dedicated Styles menu”.
The goal? To make Global Styles as easy as possible to use. Speaking of them, you should know that once WordPress 6.4 is active on your site, you will also be able to easily restore the default settings of your global styles.
Imagine that a change doesn’t suit you; you will be able to restore it to its original state in one click.
Info: Global Styles refer to a feature that lets you modify the typography, colors, or even the layout across your entire site in just a few clicks. Thanks to them, you no longer need to customize the appearance of each block one by one.
Patterns in WordPress 6.4
When WordPress 6.3 was released, the editing experience around block patterns had seen major advances, such as the ability to:
- create and sync your patterns across your entire site;
- have all your patterns in one place, in a “Pattern Library” created for the occasion within the WordPress Site Editor.
The contributors to WordPress 6.4 set out to consolidate the work begun on WP 6.3.
For example, you can get a quick overview of a pattern’s synchronization status in the “Details” section dedicated to it.
The folder containing all your patterns has simply been renamed “My Patterns” and is now positioned at the top of your sidebar so it is immediately visible:
Practical actions have also been added for each pattern. You can easily delete them, duplicate them, rename them, and export them in JSON format:
At the same time, it is now possible to create and edit your own pattern categories, so you can organize them and find them more easily later on.
Info: Initially, a feature for partially syncing patterns was planned for inclusion in WordPress 6.4. This was intended to allow content to be updated independently while locking the pattern’s layout and style. We’ll have to wait a little longer to see this option in action, which could arrive with WordPress 6.5 in early 2024.
Footnotes
Introduced in WordPress 6.3, the “Footnotes” block now supports the following customization options:
- link color, background color, and footnote text color;
- choice of font, dimensions, and borders.
Info: When it was released in August 2023, WordPress 6.3 introduced an automatic rollback feature for a theme or plugin in the event of an error detected during a manual update. WordPress 6.4 was supposed to continue the work already begun by introducing an automatic rollback feature during automatic updates on your site (e.g., for minor updates). Since several technical issues were reported during testing, this option will ultimately not be included in WP 6.4.
That wraps up this overview of the new features and improvements introduced by WordPress 6.4.
Let’s not forget to mention that this major release also improves performance and accessibility, while fixing hundreds of technical bugs encountered during its development.
Our recommendations when upgrading to WordPress 6.4
That’s it, WordPress 6.4 has just been released and you want to update your website to this new version?
That’s an excellent idea, especially to benefit from new features and strengthen the security of your WordPress site (an up-to-date site is more resilient against hacking attempts).
However, before taking action, we recommend the following things:
- back up your live site before any update. In the event of a problem, you will be able to restore it in one click;
- test WordPress 6.4 first in a test environment, for example locally. If everything is working and you do not encounter any technical issues, perform the update on your live site;
- before updating the CMS Core, first update your theme and plugins;
- wait a few days before switching to a new major version of WP (in this case WP 6.4). Newly released versions often contain small technical bugs which, rest assured, are fixed very quickly. It is still better to wait just a little while until everything is more stable before moving to a new version;
- once the update has been carried out on your production site, test your site on different browsers and different screen sizes, to check the responsive appearance of your pages on desktop, smartphone, and tablet. Also make sure that the layout has not broken and that all your content is still there.
Have you encountered a problem or simply want support to switch to WordPress 6.4 safely?
Available 7 days a week, the WordPress support service from Maintenance WP will offer you a tailor-made solution that meets your needs quickly, professionally, and effectively.
