WordPress 6.5 was released on April 2, 2024, after a week-long scheduled delay. It is also known as “Regina”.
The latest version has shipped along with several new and exciting features with many much-needed improvements. Though its beta version was released in February, there are a few changes that can be seen in the final release such as the number of Gutenberg versions that have merged.
WordPress 6.5 is assumed as one of the stable versions of WordPress. With new APIs, WordPress has come up to deliver next-level development experience and content creation. The new Font Library, block binding API, and there are several other new features and updates WordPress 6.5 is offering.
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Latest updates and improvements of WordPress 6.5
Add and manage fonts across the site
The new Font Library allows more control over Typography without coding or taking extra steps. Also, local and Google Fonts can be installed, removed, and activated seamlessly for any Block theme. Site creators and publishers get more options to style content with the help of custom typography.
Revisions for templates and their parts
Creative projects have a larger scope to experiment with new things using details like time stamps, quick summaries, and a paginated list of all revisions. View revisions from the Style Book to see the impact of new changes on every block. WordPress 6.5 also gets revisions for templates and template parts.
More room to play around with improved shadow tools and background
The size and focal points of background images in Group blocks can be controlled to explore subtle ways to add visual interest to layouts. Set aspect ratios for Cover block images and add color overlays that automatically source colors from any selected image. Adding box-shadow support to more block types and creating layouts with visual depth is possible.
New data views
With WordPress 6.5, each element on the site comes with a library of data that helps in quickly finding and organizing components. With the toggle fields option, data views for templates, pages, and patterns can be seen in the grid view.
Easy to use drag and drop
There is a noticeable difference between the latest WordPress and its previous version, which can be seen while moving things around with helpful visual cues such as displaced items in List View or frictionless dragging to anywhere in the workspace.
Link controls are improved
Creating and managing links is easy now with more intuitive link-building enhancements. For instance, UI is more streamlined now and there is a shortcut for copying links.
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More updates for developers
Blocks with interactivity API
Developers get a standardized method to build interactive front-end experiences with blocks, credit goes to the new interactivity API. It reduces dependencies on external tools and simplifies the whole process of development along with maintaining optimal site performance. The API can be used to create/enhance user experience such as letting visitors interact with content in real time or fetching search results instantly.
Connect blocks to custom fields or other dynamic content
WordPress 6.5 “Regina” allows linking core block attributes to custom fields and using the value of custom fields without creating custom blocks. Developers can extend this capability to connect blocks to dynamic content, beyond custom fields as well because Block Binding API plays a significant role here. If there is data stored elsewhere, a few lines of code help pointing blocks to that new source.
Add appearance tools to the Classic theme
Classic theme access to designers and creators with an upgraded design experience is available. Using theme.json is not required to opt support for border, typography, spacing, and color options. Once support is enabled, more tools become available and can be added.
Explore improvements to the plugin experience
Plugin dependencies are easy to manage. Plugin authors can provide a new Requires Plugins header with a comma-separated list of required plugin slugs, offering users with links to install and activate those plugins first.
Performance updates
WordPress 6.5 includes 110+ performance updates, which is the reason behind the profound increase in efficiency and speed. Site loading is over two times faster than WordPress version 6.4 and input processing speed has enhanced by five times than the previous release.
Accessibility and inclusion
The latest WordPress version includes more than 65 accessibility improvements, making it more accessible than ever. A crucial fix in version 6.5 is that it unblocks access to the admin submenus for screen reader users and everybody navigating only using the keyboard. This release also fixes issues related to color contrast in admin focus states, cursor focus, and positioning of elements, improving the overall WordPress website accessibility experience for everyone.
MySQL requirement
To use WordPress 6.5, the minimum required version of MySQL database is 5.5 because MySQL 5.0 is no longer supported. Interestingly, quite a lesser number of WordPress websites are running on MySQL 5.0 or 5.1, thus it is recommended to use minimum MySQL 5.5 or its higher versions.
Other additional changes and updates
WordPress 6.5 brings more enhancements that are worth mentioning.
- AVIF image support
- Block binding API
- Plugin dependencies
- Updates to the HTML API
- Site and post-editor unification
- Updates to Block Hooks
- And more.
Read WordPress 6.5 detailed documentation to learn more about the release.
WordPress 6.5 installation/upgrade information
To download WordPress 6.5, either visit the release archive or update automatically from the Dashboard > Updates menu in the existing site’s admin area.
Click here for a comprehensive step-by-step guide to install and update WordPress.
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