WordPress 7.2 Beta 1 is ready for testing. The final release is scheduled for December 8, 2026.

WordPress.org says this beta is for testing and development only. Do not run it on a live or mission-critical site. Use a staging copy or a local site instead.

How to try it

You have four options:

  • Install the WordPress Beta Tester plugin and choose the “Bleeding edge” channel with the “Beta/RC Only” stream.
  • Download the Beta 1 zip and install it on a test site.
  • Update through WP-CLI, the command-line tool for WordPress, using the command in the WordPress.org announcement.
  • Open a WordPress Playground instance in your browser. No setup is needed.

What changes for editing

  • Responsive controls. Building on 7.1, more blocks get settings that change by screen size. Galleries can set columns, image cropping, and aspect ratios per viewport.
  • Global Styles. A new “Customized” filter finds blocks with changed styles. The block inspector now shows values inherited from Global Styles. Form elements can also be styled.
  • Text shadows. You can add shadows to text from block settings. Themes can define shadow presets in theme.json, the file that holds a block theme’s design settings.
  • Navigation. You can add, reorder, and edit menu links from the Site Editor sidebar.
  • Notes. Notes sit in the editor margin. You can react with emoji, keep Notes open next to block settings, and minimize them. Gutenberg 24.2 already moved Notes beside your content six days ago.

Media and admin speed

Client-side media processing now reaches the Media Library. Images can be resized, compressed, and converted in the browser before upload.

The admin loads scripts and stylesheets individually, which helps browser caching. It also prefetches the admin screen you are likely to open next. Legacy Dashicons in the admin bar and sidebar are replaced with icons from the WordPress icon library.

A new “On This Day” dashboard widget shows posts you published on the same date in earlier years.

What to do

Site owners can wait for later betas and release candidates. If you manage client sites or run custom themes and plugins, test on staging now and report problems. Beta testing is how bugs get caught before December.

Also note the database change we covered earlier: WordPress 7.2 will switch off a SQL mode that breaks queries. Most sites need to do nothing.

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