WordPress 6.0 “Arturo” has just been released, approximately 3 weeks ago, and the developers have begun talking about the plans for the 6.1 version. The lead architect of the Gutenberg block editor of WordPress, Matias Ventura has revealed some of the key information regarding the next big version.
Small but useful additions
WordPress 6.1 will bring the ability to browse, visualize, and edit the structure of the website while providing more clarity between global elements. Unifying the Template Editor with Post Editor experiences is also a key point for WordPress 6.1. The Patterns will also receive some refinement; it will be possible to tailor them for custom post types and block types while granting them additional capabilities.
The global styles interface will receive some new features as well. Those features include support for restrictions, privileges, curated presets, ability to manage web fonts while being able to implement responsive typography. Themes will also receive broader access to theme.json editing. In addition to all those exciting news, Matias Venture also mentioned that Tumblr, which is a non-WordPress website, has integrated the Gutenberg editor as a first beta version on his personal Twitter:
Moving away from patterns we wanted to highlight how Gutenberg is being used outside of WordPress. Tumblr has already deployed a first beta version of its integration. pic.twitter.com/tjyYPRm32I
— Matías Ventura (@matias_ventura) June 8, 2022
The Gutenberg project is currently in the second phase: Customization. As the Customization phase completes, which is expected in the next year, the Collaboration phase will begin. This phase will improve the collaborative workflow in WordPress; users will be able to edit the parts of the website just like writing together in Google Docs.
The fourth phase, Multilangual, which is expected in 2024 or 2025 depending on the speed of the process of the second and third phases, will aim to deliver multilingual websites. The key point here is the behavior of the plugins. In this phase, the WordPress team wants the solve all the problems regarding language synchronization between the website and the plugins to deliver a seamless experience.