WordPress 5.4 Beta 2 has been released for the general public to test. The second beta for the next big release was rolled out on February 18, 2020.
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 5.4, try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can download the beta here (zip).
There have been more than 27 tickets closed since the first beta release. It includes numerous small bug fixes and improvements to help smoothen your WordPress experience. Have a quick look at the Beta 2 highlights.
WordPress 5.4 Beta 2 Highlights
- Block Editor: Columns in the Block Library that have unassigned-width will now grow equally.
- The custom gradient picker in Block Editor now works in languages other than English.
- Privacy: The privacy request form fields have been adjusted to be more consistent on mobile.
- Privacy: The notice offering help when editing the privacy policy page will no longer show at the top of All Pages in the admin area.
- Site Health: The error codes for failed REST API tests now display correctly.
Not only the documentation and testing suite improvements, but the Beta 2 version also has a handful of changes for the developers to try out. Check out the developer notes on the WordPress Core.
The big release, 5.4 is targeted to be released on March 31, 2020. Who’s excited about it? It is the first major release of 2020.
If you think you’ve found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on WordPress Trac, where you can also find a list of known bugs.