WordPress 7.0 Release Delayed for Stability

WordPress 7.0, one of the most eagerly awaited updates in recent years, has been delayed from its original April 9th release date. The decision comes as the development team shifts its focus towards ensuring that the Real-Time Collaboration (RTC) feature is fully stable. This milestone update is expected to introduce a suite of new functionalities, particularly aimed at enhancing AI-driven content management workflows, but the team has prioritised delivering a reliable release over adhering to the previously scheduled date.

Why Stability is the Priority

Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress, explained in the official Making WordPress Slack workspace that the update needed a temporary pause to focus on stability. The RTC feature, which allows multiple users to edit content simultaneously in real time, is complex and introduces new database structures that could affect performance and compatibility. Mullenweg emphasised that the delay is a one-off exception rather than a change in the overall release cadence, which aims to maintain roughly four major releases per year by 2027.

He noted:
“Given the scope of 7.0, we should extend the release candidate (RC) phase, finalise the new tables, and lock in all required features before resuming RCs. While date-driven scheduling remains our default, this milestone release prioritises extreme stability and exciting new AI-driven features.”

Extended Release Candidate Phase

Rather than returning to a beta testing model, the team has opted to extend the RC phase. This approach preserves compatibility with PHP version comparison rules, plugin update logic, and other tools that depend on the standard version sequencing. Extending the RC phase allows the developers to test the RTC feature under real-world conditions, gather more feedback, and resolve any outstanding performance or compatibility issues before the final release.

Challenges with Real-Time Collaboration

The RTC feature represents a significant technical advancement, but it also brings challenges. Real-time editing generates frequent, high-speed database writes, whereas synchronisation across different environments occurs more slowly and involves structured updates. Attempting to handle both workloads in a single database table could result in performance bottlenecks. As a result, the team is evaluating whether to split these workloads across separate tables optimised for each task.

Another technical concern is that during active real-time editing sessions, persistent post caches are temporarily disabled. While this is a necessary part of enabling live collaboration, it can impact site performance if not carefully managed. The extended RC phase provides the opportunity to monitor and refine these behaviours in a controlled environment.

Testing and Compatibility Considerations

The WordPress team also recognised gaps in real-world RC testing. While the Gutenberg plugin could be used to simulate collaborative editing, it cannot fully replicate the database changes and site migrations that will occur on production sites. By extending the RC phase, the team can involve a wider group of testers, including developers, site owners, and hosting providers, to identify potential issues before the update goes live.

Hosting providers, in particular, will need to ensure that RTC performs smoothly on shared environments. Although the feature will ship turned off by default, it is crucial to understand how enabling RTC could affect server resources, caching, and site stability. Some managed WordPress hosts, such as Kinsta, are already testing the upcoming release candidates to evaluate potential impacts.

Versioning Constraints and Future Planning

Staying within the RC sequence also helps avoid versioning issues that could arise from reverting to beta releases. The standard RC progression (RC1, RC2, RC3, etc.) ensures compatibility with tools, plugins, and automated systems that rely on version sequences. Once WordPress 7.0 is released, the team plans to resume a regular schedule of updates, taking advantage of AI-assisted workflows to accelerate development and testing.

Impact on Developers and Users

For developers, the extended RC phase provides additional time to adapt to changes in database structures and real-time editing logic. Site owners benefit from the delay because it reduces the likelihood of encountering critical issues post-release. By prioritising stability over speed, WordPress demonstrates its commitment to delivering a robust, reliable platform capable of supporting complex features without compromising site performance.

Conclusion

While delays are often disappointing, in this case, the decision to postpone WordPress 7.0 is widely seen as the right move. By extending the release candidate phase and focusing on stability, WordPress ensures that the RTC feature, along with other AI-driven enhancements, will be reliable and performant at launch. The update represents a significant step forward in collaborative editing and AI-powered content management, and this measured approach should give both developers and users confidence in the platform’s long-term direction.