WordPress 5.3 Release Candidate, the first RC for WordPress v.5.3 is now available for testing! It includes updates that you will find in the next big release, WordPress 5.3.
A release candidate (RC) means that the core development team is almost ready with WordPress 5.3. But, with millions of users and thousands of plugins and themes, they’re fully conscious of the possibility that something might have been missed. As WordPressers, it is our responsibility to help the team by testing the new updates.
The major release this year, WordPress 5.3 is on for November 12, 2019.
To test WordPress 5.3, you can use the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (choose the “bleeding edge nightlies” option) or you can download WordPress 5.3 release candidate here (zip).
Here is what you will find in WordPress 5.3:
This release introduces a new default theme, Twenty Twenty with more design flexibility and integration with the Block Editor.
WordPress 5.3 presents crucial updates to the Block Editor including new blocks, more intuitive interactions, and improved accessibility. The new features allow you to play around with the design works. It also provides additional layout options and style variations to have complete control over the outlook of your site.
The WordPress 5.3 update also allows developers to work with dates and timezones in a more reliable way and prepares the software to work with PHP 7.4 to be released later this year on November 28, 2019.
Developers have been asked to test their plugins and themes against WordPress 5.3 and update the Tested up to the version in the readme to 5.3. If you find compatibility problems please be sure to post to the support forums so the team can figure those out before the final release of WordPress 5.1.
If you want to have a detailed look at the major updates, view the WordPress 5.3 Field Guide. It will be coming out in a few hours.
If you find any bug or issue, you can report them to the Alpha/Beta support forum. This will help the development team to ship WordPress 5.1. If any known issues come up, you’ll be able to find them here.
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