WordPress 7.0 RC2 Is Here: The Final Countdown to April 9
WordPress 7.0 Release Candidate 2 (RC2) is officially dropping today, Thursday, March 26, 2026 — right on schedule according to the official WordPress 7.0 release party schedule. With just two weeks until the April 9 general release, this is the critical window for developers and site owners to test, prepare, and ensure compatibility.
What Is a Release Candidate?
A Release Candidate is a feature-complete version of WordPress that is considered ready for release unless significant bugs are discovered. RC2 follows RC1 (released March 24) and incorporates additional bug fixes and stability improvements. Only critical issues will be addressed between now and the final release.
Key Features Coming in WordPress 7.0
🤝 Real-Time Collaboration (RTC)
The headline feature of WordPress 7.0 is built-in real-time collaborative editing in the Block Editor. The implementation uses an HTTP polling sync provider (replacing WebRTC for universal hosting compatibility), with CRDT (Conflict-free Replicated Data Type) data stored via post_meta on a special wp_sync_storage post type. Notably, the decision to enable RTC by default is still being finalized around RC2 — so watch for the official announcement.
🤖 AI Connectors API
WordPress 7.0 introduces a built-in AI Client PHP API built around the php-ai-client package. Three provider plugins are now live in the Plugin Directory: OpenAI, Google AI, and Anthropic. Plugin developers can write AI features once against the shared interface, making provider switching a simple configuration change — no API key management required by end users.
🎨 Visual In-Editor Revisions
The block editor’s revisions panel now features color-coded change tracking: green for added blocks, red for removed blocks, and yellow for modified blocks. Text-level diffs show added text in green/underlined and removed text in red/strikethrough.
🔧 PHP-Only Block Registration
Developers can now register fully functional blocks using only PHP with the new autoRegister support flag — no JavaScript required. This significantly lowers the barrier for server-side block development.
🖼️ Icon Block
A new Icon block allows designers to add SVG icons from a pre-selected library, backed by a new server-side SVG Icon Registration API with a REST endpoint at /wp/v2/icons.
⚙️ New WP-CLI Commands
The WP-CLI team is shipping new wp block commands for read-only access to block entities and new wp ability commands, targeting a WP-CLI 3.0 stable release by end of March.
What’s Still Being Decided
- RTC enabled by default: The decision will be finalized around RC2. Hosts can add a custom sync provider or adjust defaults via a
wp-configconstant. - Iframed post editor: Punted to WordPress 7.1 — the Gutenberg plugin will still iframe the post editor blocks, but it won’t ship in Core 7.0.
How to Test RC2
The WordPress team strongly encourages testing RC2 before the final release. You can:
- Use the WordPress Beta Tester plugin to switch to RC2
- Download directly from wordpress.org
- Test on a staging environment — never on production
- Report bugs at core.trac.wordpress.org
Release Timeline
- ✅ RC1: March 24, 2026
- 🔄 RC2: March 26, 2026 (Today)
- 📅 RC3: April 2, 2026
- 🧊 Code Freeze: April 8, 2026
- 🚀 General Release: April 9, 2026 (live at WordCamp Asia 2026 Contributor Day in Mumbai)
Key Takeaway: WordPress 7.0 RC2 marks the final stretch of the most feature-rich WordPress release in years. With real-time collaboration, a built-in AI infrastructure, visual revisions, and PHP-only block registration, this release fundamentally expands what WordPress can do. Now is the time to test your themes, plugins, and custom code against RC2.
Hashtags: #WordPress #WordPress70 #RC2 #WebDevelopment #WordPressDeveloper #BlockEditor #RealTimeCollaboration #AI #WPDev
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