As the WordPress team continues to press forward toward creating a more user-friendly website-building experience, the team also released two minor updates to WordPress 6.2. More significant releases in the WordPress community include Gutenberg 15.8 and WooCommerce 7.7.
In addition to launching new blocks and multichannel marketing, WooCommerce also announced a strategic partnership with TikTok. As a result, WooCommerce users now have access to its official TikTok extension, allowing them to create in-feed ads on the social platform.
Keep reading to learn more about these and other WordPress updates in May.
Minor security releases for WordPress 6.2 plus development on WordPress 6.3
Back in March 2023, we saw the release of WordPress 6.2, which brought the Site Editor out of beta mode and introduced new features like distraction-free mode and a new style book. In May, the WordPress team released two minor updates to 6.2.
WordPress 6.2.1 was released on May 16, 2023, and WordPress 6.2.2 was released on May 20, 2023, as a rapid response update to fix a regression in 6.2.1. Both are minor releases and will update automatically for websites with automatic background updates enabled.
On May 17, WordPress released a roadmap to 6.3, the company’s next major release. The team announced that WordPress 6.3 will debut on August 8, 2023.
WordPress is actively working on the following feature updates:
- A more refined Site Editor. Priorities include adding a Navigation, Pages and Styles, as well as introducing a command center and content editing.
- Updates to blocks. Improvements to existing blocks plus the possible addition of blocks for footnotes, details and table of contents.
- More functionality for patterns. Further integration of the patterns feature, including the ability to create and curate.
In addition to these UX updates, WordPress will work on improving the overall stability of the Site Editor and creating a more simplified and streamlined design process.
Gutenberg 15.8 Site Editor includes new Pages menu
Gutenberg 15.8 became available on May 17, 2023. This latest version includes smaller changes intended to fix bugs and create a better user experience by simplifying the workflow and refining the plugin’s responsiveness.
Here’s what users can expect from Gutenberg 15.8:
- Pages added to Site Editor. The Site Editor lists the 10 most recently updated pages, making it easier to access and edit them.
- Global styles saves past versions. Updates to the global styles interface let you view past site versions in a timeline format.
- Ability to preview block themes. Users can now see what their websites would look like with block themes before installing.
WooCommerce 7.7 brings multichannel marketing, new blocks and styling improvements
WooCommerce 7.7.0 officially launched on May 10, 2023, giving sellers more ways to reach their target audience and customize product view and customer checkout flows on their online stores.
Notably, Multichannel Marketing is no longer in beta mode and now serves as the default view for the Marketing page.
Additional improvements include:
- Product Reviews block
- New styling options for the Add to Cart button
- New styling and components for shopper notices
- Ability to customize all buttons in the Mini Cart block
- New styling options for Product SKU, Product Price and Product Image blocks
- Ability to upgrade to Blockified Single Product template for more customizable product pages
WooCommerce launches official TikTok extension as part of strategic partnership
On May 25, 2023, TikTok and WooCommerce announced a strategic partnership to let WooCommerce users sync their products to TikTok and advertise directly on social media.
The TikTok for WooCommerce extension is available in the WooCommerce Marketplace. It will let sellers promote their products in native in-feed TikTok ads. Ad types available in TikTok’s Ad Manager include Video Shopping, Catalog Listings and Live Shopping.
MasterWP offers travel grants for underrepresented speakers ahead of WordCamp US 2023
WordCamp flagship events are right around the corner. WordCamp Europe is coming up next month from June 8-10 in Athens, Greece, and WordCamp US is scheduled for August 24-26 in National Harbor, Maryland.
MasterWP will continue to offer travel grants of $1,000+ per person for individuals that:
- Identify as a member of an underrepresented group, including women, people of color and people with disabilities.
- Do not receive money from their employer to travel to WordCamp. (Self-employed individuals and small business owners can apply.)
- Are participating as a speaker or organizer at WordCamp US 2023.
Organizers and speakers that qualify can apply here.
The Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship will also be available, and the application portal will stay open until June 12, 2023.
This scholarship is available to women-identifying WordPress contributors who are attending their first WordCamp and require financial assistance.
Jetpack announces the end of Twitter auto-sharing
In April, Jetpack experienced issues with its Twitter API access. That resulted in users no longer having the ability to automatically share blog posts on Twitter.
On May 18, 2023, Jetpack announced that the auto-share feature for Twitter would no longer be available due to sudden changes in Twitter’s API terms and pricing. Jetpack users can still manually share posts on Twitter by pasting URLs into posts.
Furthermore, auto-sharing remains available on Facebook, Linkedin and Tumblr.
May WordPress acquisitions and investment news
Rymera Web Co welcomes WC Vendor
Rymera Web Co announced its acquisition of WC Vendors on May 10, 2023.
Rymera Web Co is the company responsible for WooCommerce extensions, including WholeSale Suite and Advanced Coupons. WC Vendors is a multi-vendor WooCommerce marketplace with more than 10,000 active installs.
The partnership will keep the WC Vendors team unchanged (except for founder Jamie Madden) to use Rymera’s additional resources to improve the experience and add new features.
Wishlist Products joins CaseProof
On May 2, 2023, Blair Williams of Caseproof announced her purchase of WishList Products, which includes the following plugins:
- WishList Member™ membership plugin
- CourseCure LMS plugin
WishList Products will join the WPBeginner Growth Accelerator, which is headed by investor and WPBeginner founder Syed Bhalki. The fund provides resources to WordPress businesses with the goal of helping them refine and improve their products.
Strategic partnership between Emilia Capital and WCPS
WCPS is a serverless cloud solutions provider that enables WaaS and SaaS-like WordPress solutions. On May 11, the company announced a recent investment from Emilia Capital, which will allow WCPS to expand its offerings to product companies, service providers and hosting providers.
Emilia Capital is a holding company for Yoast creators Joost de Valk & Marieke van de Rakt, which they use to invest in the WordPress ecosystem with the goal of improving the online experience.
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