WordPress 6.6 was introduced on July 16, 2024. It includes quite a few changes that focus on new functionality and site reliability alike. Here are some highlights of the changes introduced in WordPress 6.6:
New Grid block
Perhaps the most important new change was the introduction of a Grid block. This new block allows you to more easily create multi-column layouts. You can adjust the minimum column width and number of columns, and even allow one block to span multiple columns.
Automatically roll back a failed update
WordPress now includes a new feature that will automatically roll back an update to the previous version if the update creates a PHP fatal error. In other words, if a plugin update breaks your website, the plugin will revert to the previous version automatically. Now you can set your plugins to automatically update without worrying about the auto-updates breaking your site when you’re away from it.
New keyboard shortcut to group blocks together
WordPress has added a keyboard shortcut for grouping blocks. Select the blocks you want to group and press ⌘ (Command) + G on a Mac or Ctrl + G on Windows to group the blocks together.
Other new features
Here are some other minor feature additions and updates:
- Set negative margins: WordPress 6.6 will allow you to enter negative margins for an object.
- Patterns and template parts in one location: For simplicity, these items are now available together within Patterns.
- Numerous performance changes and improvements for developers: As always, WordPress added new features to make developing themes and plugins easier, as well as performance changes to make WordPress run more smoothly.
- PHP 7.2 or greater required: WordPress officially dropped support for PHP 7.0 and 7.1. Read our guide to using PHP with WordPress to learn more about how this could impact your site and how to update to a newer version of PHP.
For a complete list of changes, see the WordPress 6.6 field guide.
