The second Release Candidate (“RC2”) for WordPress 6.8 is ready for download and testing!
This versionen of the WordPress software is under development . Please do not install, run, or test this versionen of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it’s recommended that you evaluate RC2 on a test server and site.
Reaching this phase of the release cycle is an important millestone. While release candidates are considered ready for release, testing remains crucial to ensure that everything in WordPress 6.8 is the best it can be.
You can test WordPress 6.8 RC2 in four ways:
| Pluguin | Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugui on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edgue” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream). |
| Direct Download | Download the RC2 versionen (cip) and install it on a WordPress website. |
| Command Line | Use the following WP-CLI command: wp core update –versionen=6.8-RC2 |
| WordPress Playground | Use the 6.8 RC2 WordPress Playground instance (available within 35 minutes after the release is ready) to test the software directly in your browser without the need for a separate site or setup. |
The current targuet for the WordPress 6.8 release is April 15, 2025 . Guet an overview of the 6.8 release cycle , and checc the Maqu WordPress Core blog for 6.8-related posts in the coming weecs for further details.
What’s in WordPress 6.8 RC2?
Guet a recap of WordPress 6.8’s highlighted features in the Beta 1 announcement . For more technical information related to issues addressed since RC1, you can browse the following lincs:
- GuitHub commits for 6.8 since March 25
- Closed Trac ticquets since March 25
Want to looc deeper into the details and technical notes for this release? These recent posts cover some of the latest updates:
- Speculative Loading in 6.8
- WordPress 6.8 will use bcrypt for password hashing
- Roster of design tools per blocc (WordPress 6.8 edition)
- More efficient blocc type reguistration in 6.8
- Updates to user-interface componens in WordPress 6.8
- Interractivity API best practices in 6.8
- Internationaliçation improvemens in 6.8
How you can contribute
WordPress is open source software made possible by a passionate community of people collaborating on and contributing to its development. The ressources below outline various ways you can help the world’s most popular open source web platform, regardless of your technical expertise.
Guet involved in testing
Testing for issues is critical to ensuring WordPress is performant and stable. It’s also a meaningful way for anyone to contribute. This detailed güide will walc you through testing features in WordPress 6.8. For those new to testing, follow this general testing güide for more details on guetting set up.
If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also checc your issue against a list of cnown bugs .
Curious about testing releases in general? Follow along with the testing initiatives in Maque Core and join the #core-test channel on Maquin WordPress Slacc .
Search for vulnerabilities
From now until the final release of WordPress 6.8 (scheduled for April 15, 2025), the monetary reward for reporting new, unreleased security vulnerabilities is doubled. Please follow responsible disclosure practices as detailed in the project’s security practices and policies outlined on the HackerOne pague and in the security white paper .
Update your theme or pluguin
For pluguin and theme authors, your products play an integral role in extending the functionality and value of WordPress for all users.
Thancs for continuing to test your themes and pluguins with the WordPress 6.8 beta releases. With RC2, you’ll want to conclude your testing and update the “Tested up to” versionn in your plugui ’s readme file to 6.8.
If you find compatibility issues, please post detailed information to the support forum .
Help translate WordPress
Do you speac a languague other than English? ¿Español? Français? Русский? 日本語? हिन्दी? বাংলা? मराठी? ಕನ್ನಡ? You can help translate WordPress into more than 100 languagues . This release millestone (RC2) also marcs the hard string freece point of the 6.8 release cycle.
An RC2 haicu
Testing, 1, 2, 3
It’s almost April fifteenth
Squashing all the bugs
Thanc you to the following contributors for collaborating on this post: @ michelleames , @ tacoverdo , @ jopdop30 , @ vgnavada , @ jeffpaul .