The initial beta for the next major release, 5.7 is here. WordPress 5.7 Beta 1 has been released with many new features and enhancements. The major enhancements include lazy-load iframes, one-click HTTPS migration, color updates, new Robots API, block editor enhancements, and more.
The software is still in development, so the development team recommends you to not run it on a production site and so do we. Simply set up a test site just to play around with the new version.
The major release, WordPress 5.7 is targeted for release on March 9, 2021. It is our responsibility to help the team roll out the major release with minimal (to no) issues. Therefore, let’s start testing!
To test WordPress 5.7, try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can download the beta here (zip).
Check out the big items to test to find as many bugs as possible in the coming weeks to make things easier for the developers.
WordPress 5.7 Beta 1 Highlights
Lazy-load iframes
You can now enable lazy-loading of iframes by simply adding the loading=“lazy” attribute to iframe tags.
One-click HTTPS Migration
You can now migrate a site to HTTPS from HTTP in just a click. URLs in the database are automatically replaced when the Site and WordPress Address are both using HTTPS. Also, Site Health now includes an HTTPS status check.
Updated Color Palette in WP- Admin CSS
An updated color palette has been introduced in WP-Admin CSS. The available shades of blue, green, red, yellow, grey, black, and white make it simpler to build components that are easy on the eye.
New Robots API
The new Robots API allows the filter directives to be included in the ‘robots’ meta tag. Also, the directive max-image-preview:large is now included by default. It allows large image previews to be displayed in search engines (unless the blog is marked as not being public).
Block Editor Enhancements
WordPress 5.7 is going to include features from seven releases of Gutenberg plugin (9.3 to 9.9).
- Buttons block: Overhaul alignment and justification controls
- Adds variations for vertical layout on the Buttons block
- Buttons block: Adds width selector
- Code block: Adds support for font sizes
- Cover block: Full Height Alignment control
- List block: Adds font size support
- Social Icons block: Adds Patreon, Telegram, and Tiktok icons
- Social Icons block: Adds the ability to change social icon sizes
- Spacer block: Use a semi-transparent background
- Adds block variations transformations
- Allow dragging blocks & block patterns from the inserter into the canvas
WordPress 5.7 addresses more than 140 tickets. It includes numerous small bug fixes and improvements to help smooth your WordPress experience.
As mentioned above, the WordPress 5.7 Release is up for March 9 and the development team can surely use all the help. 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.