Big changes for 2024.
WordPress is constantly evolving as a premier platform, with new features expanding its capabilities and improving users’ experiences. That’s good news for WordPress developers like us and for associations and enterprises that are updating content and building new pages throughout their websites.
Three core releases are expected for 2024—we’ve already seen the release of WordPress 6.5 earlier this year, and two more are on the way. In the article, we’ll take a closer look at what’s new in WordPress land this year and explore some of the exciting features on the horizon.
Gutenberg gets more golden.
If you’ve read our article on Gutenberg, you’ll be up to speed on why it’s an exceptional block-editing tool for creating supremely adaptable websites. Now, it’s about to get even better. Considered to be “Phase 3” of the Gutenberg project, WordPress’ three releases in 2024 are mainly focused on making page-building a more immersive, collaborative, accessible, and better-performing experience. Let’s get into why.
Revisions in stunning detail.
Say goodbye to “who did what revisions when?” Gutenberg is now equipped with features that allow you to track revisions more easily. This is especially useful for teams who are collaborating on content. New features like timestamps, summaries and a list of all page revisions give you a full picture of what’s been updated.
Have revision regrets? If you’re working through some changes and realize you preferred a previous iteration, now you can go back to that version quickly. Thanks to the enhanced style revisions panel, you’ll see a detailed log of your changes. And with a quick “restore”, you can jump right back to where you left off.
Accessibility on the up and up.
With web accessibility a major focus for many organizations, it’s no surprise that WordPress is tackling the issue head-on. According to WordPress, their latest release includes “more than 65 accessibility improvements across the platform, making it more accessible than ever.”
Some key highlights are a better experience for those who use screen readers and keyboards, colour contrast and focus fixes, and more.
Ready to respond to many voices.
It is estimated that more than 50% of adults worldwide use voice search, with Google Search unsurprisingly being the most popular platform. This percentage is only expected to increase rapidly. So, how will WordPress respond?
WordPress plans to add compatibility for voice-activated searches. With the addition of voice recognition technology, your users can search for information throughout your website as easily as a Siri or Alexa shoutout.
Multilanguage that’s more manageable.
We’re incredibly excited about this feature. Working with a range of national associations and enterprises, we’re often required to implement site-wide language translation using a plugin called WMPL. Let’s say this plugin has limitations and can be pretty cumbersome, especially for large sites with a robust amount of content. This process also often necessitates hiring a translator to optimize the language further.
By incorporating AI functionality, WordPress strives to simplify website translation. This year, they plan to introduce new plugins that provide better translations and local SEO insights – making your site instantly more accessible to more people across different languages.
Hello, dark mode, my old friend.
Dark mode has been a trending topic in web design for several years. Ideal for those who are working late, dark mode has been found to cause less eye stress when the lights go down. While plugins are currently available for dark mode, WordPress plans a built-in solution. If you’ve read our article on plugins, you’ll know fewer plugins are more for optimal performance and security. So, having this functionality within WordPress is a win for those who wish to go over to the dark side.
Better, faster, stronger.
It seems the folks at WordPress are channelling their inner Daft Punk as they aim to improve overall performance, including processing, speed, and efficiency. As WordPress specialists, we can’t wait to see how all these new upgrades and features will elevate the development process for us and our clients.
