The third Beta has been released and now is available for download. WordPress 5.2 Beta 3 was released on Friday, April 12, 2019.
Since the software is still in development mode, it’s best that you don’t run it on a production site. Consider setting up a test site just to play with the new version. To test WordPress 5.2, try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can download the beta here (zip).
There have been 40 tickets closed since the second beta release. It includes numerous small bug fixes and improvements to help smoothen your WordPress experience.
As mentioned in the Beta 2 release, updating your PHP version is mandatory. If you’re running an older version, update your PHP to minimum v.5.6.20 before the major release this year.
Now, let’s have a quick look at the WordPress 5.2 highlights.
Highlights in WordPress 5.2 Beta 3
- Refinements on Site Health feature.
- Plugins no longer update if a site is running an unsupported version of PHP (see #46613).
- It’s now more apparent when a site is running in Recovery Mode (see #46608).
- The distraction-free button no longer breaks keyboard navigation in the Classic Editor (see #46640).
- Assistive technologies do a better job of announcing admin bar submenus (see #37513).
- Subject lines in WordPress emails are now more consistent (see #37940).
- Personal data exports now only show as completed when a user downloads their data (see #44644).
- Plus more improvements to accessibility (see #35497 and #42853).
The Beta 3 version also has a handful of changes for the developers to play around with. Check out the developer notes on the WordPress Core.
WordPress 5.2 release schedule date is on April 30 this month. And to make the major release smooth and bug-free, the developers need your help. Therefore, start testing right away!
If you think you’ve found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. Moreover, if you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on WordPress Trac, where you can also find a list of known bugs.