What’s new for developers? (April 2026)

WordPress 7.0's release cycle has been extended to fix a performance issue in the Real-Time Collaboration (RTC) database architecture. Pre-release versions are paused until April 17th, with a new schedule announced by April 22nd. Key developer highlights include: RTC using Yjs/CRDT with HTTP polling, requiring migration from classic meta boxes; a new WP AI Client PHP library providing a unified abstraction for AI providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Ollama, Mistral, OpenRouter); a Connectors API for platform-level AI credential management; a Client-Side Abilities API in JavaScript; and WordPress Playground's new MCP server enabling AI coding agents like Claude Code to control a local WordPress instance via WebSocket. Theme developers get pseudo-state button styling in theme.json, viewport-based block visibility controls, and background gradient support. PHP minimum requirement rises to 7.4, with 8.2+ recommended.