This release is strongly focused on improving your workflow. You’ll find new ways to collaborate with your team, cleaner ways to compose content, and native blocks that replace the need for additional plugins.
We’ve researched all the new features and in this guide we’ll show you what’s new in WordPress 6.9 with screenshots and tips on how to use them.
Here’s a quick overview of the changes in WordPress 6.9:
Collaborate with ‘Notes’ at the block level 💬
WordPress 6.9 takes a big step toward better team collaboration. The new ‘Notes’ feature lets you add comments directly to individual blocks, just like in Google Docs.
Previously, you had to use Slack plugins or third-party plugins to discuss edits. Now you can simply click the three-dot menu on a block and select ‘Add Note’ to leave feedback.
Your team members can respond to notes, tag others, and resolve the discussion once changes are made.
You can also view a list of all notes on a page by clicking the Notes button in the top toolbar.
This is a huge improvement for editorial workflows. Best of all, these comments are private to the editor and will never be seen by your website visitors.
Hide blocks from front (block visibility)
Have you ever wanted to set up part of a page but not yet show it to the public? Previously you needed a plugin for this.
WordPress 6.9 adds a native Hide on frontend option. This allows you to keep blocks in your editor and make them invisible to visitors.
To use it, just click the three-dot menu on a block and select ‘Hide’.
The block disappears from the visual canvas, but you can still find it using the Document overview (List view).
From there, you can turn visibility back on when you’re ready to publish.
This is perfect for prepping seasonal content (like Black Friday banners) or setting up updates without creating a whole new page.
A smoother drag and drop experience
For many beginners, moving blocks around the editor felt a bit clunky. You had to grab a specific ‘handle’ to move things.
WordPress 6.9 introduces Instant drag and drop. You can now click and drag blocks more intuitively within the editor, without having to find the little drag handle.
This makes the Block Editor feel much more like a true visual page builder, speeding up your design process significantly.
New blocks to better organize content
This release eliminates the need for several common plugins by adding new, powerful blocks to the core library.
1. The accordion block
You can finally create native collapsible content sections. The new Accordion Block lets you add multiple text panels that expand and collapse.
Pro tip: The accordion block supports Anchors. This means you can create direct links to specific questions in your FAQ section, which is good for SEO and the user experience.
2. Term query block
This block allows you to display a dynamic list of categories or tags anywhere on your site.
It is highly customizable and updates automatically when you add new content.
3. Math block
Do you have an educational site? You no longer need an extra plug-in to write mathematical equations.
The new Math block supports native LaTeX and MathML standards.
4. Time to read block
This small but useful block calculates and displays the estimated reading time of your message.
By adding this to the top of your articles you can encourage visitors to start reading.
5. Better typography with “Fit Text”
A new ‘Customize text’ option is available for paragraphs and headings. It automatically scales your text to fill the container size.
This is great for creating bold, responsive hero sections that look good on all screen sizes.
Improved email processing and inline images
This is a ‘behind the scenes’ update that will help WordPress developers and users who want to customize WordPress emails. WordPress 6.9 has improved the way emails are sent (via the wp_mail function).
The system now supports inline images. This means that emails sent by WordPress, such as password resets, new user notifications, or receipts, can now contain images directly within the message body.
This improves usability and makes your emails look professional, instead of showing broken image icons in your subscribers’ inboxes.
Command palette available everywhere ⌨️
The Command Palette is a power user tool that allows you to quickly go to different parts of your site by pressing Ctrl + K (or Command + K on Mac).
In WordPress 6.9, this feature is now available everywhere full WordPress dashboardnot just the Site Editor.
You can use it to directly search for a specific setting, go to the Plugins page, or create a new post without having to click through multiple menus.
AI developments in WordPress 6.9
WordPress 6.9 brings significant AI updates. Here’s a summary of those updates:
1. Capabilities API
The all-new Abilities API is a registry of everything WordPress can do in a machine-readable format.
For years, WordPress offered thousands of features through core software, plugins, and themes, but these were only accessible through code.
The Capabilities API provides a shared language that both humans and AI platforms can understand.
Each plugin or theme can ‘register’ what it is capable of, for example analyzing SEO content, generating reports or backing up your site, along with clear input, output and permissions.
2. MCP adapter
Think of the MCP adapter as a bridge. It connects the WordPress Abilities API to the MCP specification, giving AI agents a standardized way to ‘talk’ to your website.
This tool supports standard connections (such as HTTP and STDIO) and comes with built-in error handling. This makes it much easier for developers to build custom AI integrations that are both flexible and reliable.
3. PHP AI client
The new one PHP AI client makes it much easier for developers to add AI features to their plugins.
It works with all major AI providers, giving developers the freedom to choose the exact model they need. Best of all, it centrally manages your credentials so you don’t have to enter your API keys for each plugin individually.
Performance and speed upgrades 🚀
As with any major release, WordPress 6.9 is faster. The core team has made several changes to improve page load times for visitors:
- Smarter charging style: For ‘Classic Themes’, WordPress now only loads the CSS for the blocks you actually use on the page, instead of loading everything at once. [#64099]
- Less view blocking: Scripts for things like emojis have been moved to the footer, making the visible part of your website appear faster (which improves your LCP score). [#64076]
- Optimized background tasks: Scheduled tasks (Cron jobs) now run on exit so they don’t slow down the page loading for your visitors. (#63858)
Other developer changes:
- API UI for block bindings: The interface for binding block attributes to custom fields has been improved, allowing you to bind or unbind data with one click.
- PHP 8.5 support: WordPress 6.9 adds beta support for PHP 8.5, ensuring compatibility with the latest server environments.
We hope this article helped you discover what’s new in WordPress 6.9. We’re especially excited about the Notes collaboration feature and the improvements in email reliability.
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