The WordPress core development team continues to make significant strides in their plans and initiatives for 2026. Here is a comprehensive overview of recent and upcoming meetings as well as critical development updates.
<h3>Recent Dev Chats and Agendas</h3>
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January 7, 2026: The team conducted a meeting that focused on discussing the retrospective of the WordPress 6.9 release. Key topics included filtering the PHP extensions list to better reflect commonly used extensions and general announcements about the recent release cycle.
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January 14, 2026: This meeting centered around recruiting volunteers for the upcoming WordPress 7.0, with an application deadline of January 16. Another key decision made was to drop support for PHP versions 7.2 and 7.3 in the forthcoming version 7.0. Additional discussions included retrospective feedback for the 6.9 release and the potential default use of the PHP filter extension.
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January 21, 2026: An opportunity was provided for contributors to engage in upcoming releases with a focus on bug reporting, patch testing, and feature development.
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January 28, 2026: Updates were provided on ongoing nominations for Core Team Representatives, plans for the WordPress 6.9.1 maintenance release scheduled for February 3, and the announcement of the WordPress 7.0 Release Squad, including a bug scrub schedule and updates about Gutenberg 22.4.
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February 4, 2026: Discussions during this meeting involved voting for Core Team Representatives, completion of the WordPress 6.9.1 maintenance release, and updates for WordPress 7.0. A particular focus was on the progress of the Client Side Media feature and the WP AI Client integration proposal.
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February 11, 2026: A planned chat is set to involve further release discussions and will provide an open floor section for various contributions.
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<h3>Key Development Initiatives</h3>
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Call for Volunteers: A call has been issued to gather volunteers for contributing to WordPress 7.0 development, aiming to involve an active and engaged community in shaping the next major release.
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PHP Support Changes: Significant updates include the decision to drop support for PHP versions 7.2 and 7.3 in WordPress 7.0, aiming to enhance platform security and performance.
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Performance Team Efforts: Separate performance-focused meetings have been taking place, with recent sessions on January 27 and February 10 discussing performance-related Trac tickets, bug fixes, and optimizations aimed at improving WordPress’s speed and efficiency.
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Ongoing Community Engagement: Regular chats continue to foster community engagement by providing open discussions, retrospective feedback, and calls for involvement in bugs reporting, testing, and feature development.
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All interested contributors are encouraged to participate in future meetings held in the Make WordPress Slack channel to contribute to ongoing conversations about the development of WordPress core.

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WordPress core team is preparing for version 7.0 with several key changes: dropping PHP 7.2 and 7.3 support, recruiting volunteers through mid-January deadline, and releasing maintenance version 6.9.1 on February 3. Recent dev chats covered retrospectives on 6.9 release, Core Team Representative nominations, and new features like Client Side Media and WP AI Client integration. Performance team continues optimization work through dedicated meetings, while community engagement remains active through regular Slack discussions.

WordPress Core Development: January 2026 Meetings Overview