Core Team Announces WordPress Release Schedule for 2025 and Issues Call for WP 6.8 Volunteers

Automattician Héctor Prieto has revealed the schedule for WordPress releases in 2025. Similar to 2024, three major releases are planned:

WordPress 6.8 – Beta 1 on March 4, stable release on April 15

WordPress 6.9 – Beta 1 on June 24, stable release on August 5

WordPress 7.0 – Beta 1 on September 30, stable release on November 11

The Core team has considered year-end festivities and key events like WordCamp Asia and WordCamp Europe when setting these dates. Héctor mentioned, “Although the 6.8 dates aren’t final yet, they are close to final enough to let contributors know their availability around that time.”

The community can share their feedback on the release schedule either in the comments below the post or via a Slack DM by November 29, 2024.

WordPress 6.8 Call for Volunteers

Héctor Prieto has shared the tentative timeline for WordPress 6.8, which will include up to Gutenberg 20.4 with a maximum of 11 releases. The general release will be on April 15, 2024.

The 6.8 release is looking for volunteers in the following roles:

Release Coordinator(s)

Core Tech Lead(s)

Editor Tech Lead(s)

Core Triage Lead(s)

Editor Triage Lead(s)

Documentation Lead(s)

Test Lead(s)

Design Lead(s)

Performance Lead(s)

As there is no new default theme for WordPress 6.8, there will be no default theme lead role. As usual, the Release Lead role will be filled by project leadership. WordPress 6.7 did not have a dedicated Marketing Lead, but depending on feedback from the previous release, the 6.8 squad may reinstate this role or add other missing positions.

Despite recent events, including several contributors being blocked from WordPress Slack channels and others stepping back from contributions, the post has already attracted a number of volunteers.

If you’re interested in joining the WordPress 6.8 release squad as a lead, please comment your interest below the post by December 6th, specifying your desired role.