It’s a new year, so it’s time for a new WordPress wish list. Leading into last year, we detailed 5 features we wanted to see WordPress add, and then we updated the list halfway through the year. A couple of those features have now been added into WordPress, so these are the 5 features we’d most like to see WordPress add in 2020.
1. Native support for Dark Mode
2019 was a big year for Dark Mode. Apple introduced native support for Dark Mode into iOS 13 and Android introduced Dark Mode into Android 10. That means most smartphones have support for dark mode. MacOS introduced Dark Mode support a couple of years ago, so many computers support it too.
Support for Dark Mode is fairly simple to implement into a static website, but WordPress support would be more complicated. Currently, a few plugins offer rudimentary support for Dark Mode, but they require the user to click or press a button to switch to Dark Mode. Instead, WordPress should offer a thorough, native solution, including color choices for light mode and dark mode in the Customizer and the option to upload an alternate image for dark mode.
2. Schedule updates to content
Our most-desired feature last year was to allow users to schedule updates to existing content, much like new posts can be scheduled now. While Dark Mode now takes over our #1 spot, scheduled content updates are still very high on the list.
While a plugin exists for scheduling content updates, it’s a clunky solution and a first-party feature release would likely be much simpler and elegant. We’ll continue to hold out hope that this feature comes along some day.
3. Move site stats from Jetpack to core
Yet another one of our most-requested features last year still hasn’t come to fruition. Here’s what we had to say about site stats last year:
A standalone, self-hosted WordPress site offers a lot of extra features that are unavailable on a free WordPress.com blog, but WordPress.com also has several unique features bundled into it that aren’t a part of the core of WordPress. As such, the Jetpack plugin offers the ability to add any of these extra features to self-hosted WordPress. It’s a great way to ensure self-hosted WordPress sites aren’t missing out on extra features, but some of them make so much sense that they should probably be built into WordPress. Site stats is one example. We mentioned last November that we’d love to see site stats moved to WordPress core, and it would still be a handy addition so stats are available to all WordPress sites, not just those using Jetpack. Of course, since Jetpack offers premium upgrades and that makes money for Automattic, it doesn’t make a lot of sense for them to do this from a business standpoint, but we can dream.
That still pretty well sums it up. Site stats are an important enough feature that we’d really like to see them added to WordPress core.
4. Native SEO controls
WordPress is one of the better platforms out there for SEO, but it really takes a plugin to fully optimize a website for search engines. We’ve provided lots of tips to help you optimize your SEO, but we really wish WordPress would include more built-in tools to aid you along the way.
5. Continued Gutenberg improvements
WordPress has made incremental improvements to Gutenberg a major priority, but we still see areas for improvement. We know that Gutenberg will eventually allow easier customization of a site’s header, footer, menus, and other areas. We’d also love to see better support for complex multi-column layouts.
What do you think WordPress is missing? Let us know in the comments!
