WordPress 7.1 has moved into its Release Candidate phase. RC1 is the version core contributors expect to ship, barring any last-minute bugs, and it confirms the final release date announced back when Beta 1 landed three weeks ago: August 19, 2026.
What “Release Candidate” means for you
Do not install RC1 on a live site. It is still a testing build, meant for staging sites, test servers, or a local install, not production. If you want to help catch bugs before the real release, you can try RC1 through the WordPress Beta Tester plugin, a direct ZIP download, WP-CLI, or the WordPress Playground, which runs the new version in your browser with no install at all.
What changed since Beta 1
RC1 bundles more than 145 fixes made since Beta 4, split across the block editor and WordPress core. Beyond the polish, a few features arrived after Beta 1:
- Shareable revisions. You can now share a direct link to one specific version of a page or post, useful when a client or teammate needs to review one exact draft instead of digging through a revision history.
- Email notifications for @mentions. Tagging a collaborator by name in an internal Note now sends them an email, so feedback doesn’t get missed.
- Speculative loading controls. Site owners and hosts get more control over how aggressively WordPress preloads pages a visitor is likely to click next, a background performance feature most sites won’t need to touch.
What to do now
Nothing changes on your live site today. If you manage a staging environment, this is a good week to test your theme and plugins against RC1 before the August 19 release reaches your dashboard as a normal update.
End of article