You might not notice it at first glance, but under the hood, WordPress 6.8 is packing some surprisingly smart changes—especially if you’re all about performance, security, and a smoother workflow. Let’s break down what’s new, how to test it safely, and why you might love these small but mighty upgrades.
👉 Test WordPress 6.8 risk-free at: https://playground.wordpress.net
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What’s Inside:
WordPress 6.8 isn’t here to reinvent the wheel—it’s here to make it roll smoother. This update introduces speculative loading for faster page transitions, a bCrypt security upgrade to keep your site safer, and classic theme support for the Style Book, finally bridging the design gap. You’ll also see intuitive updates to global styles, featured image handling, and the query loop block. Whether you’re a casual blogger or a seasoned developer, there’s something here for you.
Resources & Mentions:
🧪 Test WP 6.8 on WordPress Playground:
https://playground.wordpress.net
📘 Official WordPress 6.8 Roadmap:
https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/02/06/roadmap-to-6-8/
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►What is SEO and How Does it Work? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjfrzGeB5_g
►How to Install a WordPress Theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIPQRQLAz90
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Okay so WordPress 6.8 is out soon and While it might not be reinventing the Wheel it's packing some really smart Updates that could make your daily WordPress life better you know sometimes How it's the little things that make the Biggest difference that's what WordPress 6.8 is about we've got two standout Features a smart new way to make pages Load faster and a security upgrade That's working behind the scenes to keep Your site safe plus there's a whole Bunch of thoughtful refinements that Just make WordPress feel better let's Take a look at what's coming and why you Might actually love these changes and The first thing I want to show you is How to test WordPress 6.8 without Putting it on your site and the easiest Way to do that is come to Playground.wordpress.net and that will Spin up a WordPress website for you Where you can test out things like Adding plugins themes and things like That but you can also test out all the New features and functions inside WordPress 6.8 and to do that all you Need to do is come up to the little cog Icon in the top right corner click on That and then click on the WordPress Version dropdown and choose 6.8 and then Once you've chosen 6.8 click apply Settings and reset playground and That'll open up a site running WordPress
6.8 let's start with something pretty Cool speculative loading okay the name Sounds super technical but here's why You'll like it you know that Split-second delay when someone clicks a Link on your site wordpress is about to Make that feel smoother here's how it Works imagine your website is a really Attentive waiter instead of waiting for Someone to order it starts preparing as Soon as they pick up the menu that's Exactly what WordPress will do now when Someone hovers over a link it starts Loading that page in the background While it's not going to turn your site Into a Formula 1 race car it does make Browsing feel more natural and Responsive and the best part it just Works no complicated setup needed though If you're a developer you can totally Customize how it behaves now let's talk About something visual remember the Style book feature yeah the one that Gives you an overview of your site's Design elements including colors Typography and block styles well it's Finally coming to classic themes the Themes that don't support full sight Editing okay so on this demo site I've Just added Astra so that we can look at Where the style book is so to find it All we need to do is come over to Appearance here hover over that and then Click on design and now we get this
Design section and under design here we Can see we've got the styles book right There click on that and that's going to Open up the styles for this site and Everything from colors Typography to images separators buttons Headings and much More you may have noticed as well if I Head Back you'll see also the patterns have Been moved here as well so that's Appearance design patterns you'll be Able to see all your patterns for your Site right in one place okay okay so a Really handy feature that's been added Is where you can turn any image block Into your featured image with just one Click okay to demonstrate this I've just Opened the block editor and I've added An image to this post and then all you Need to do to set this image right here As a featured image is just click on the Image then click on the three little Dots here and then you'll see set as Featured image as an option just click On that and we can see post feature Image has been updated that easy if You're a fullsight editor user here's Something you'll appreciate the global Styles panel just got a bit smarter you Know how sometimes you want to make Sitewide change to your fonts or colors Well the updated styles panel in your Sidebar now gives you a more streamlined
Way to handle these global design tweaks Okay to show you this I'm just going to Switch over from using a classic theme To a block theme i'm just going to go to Appearance and then switch over to the 2025 theme by clicking activate we can See that that's activated on the site I'm just going to click on edit site up Here okay so now we're in the full site Editor i'm going to show you a couple of Things first styles we're going to click On that as we can see we got nice styles Panel right here and we've got access to Our typography we can change different Type sets fonts elements i go back we Can also change colors as well so we can Edit our color palette if we want to and If we go back can choose the individual Elements as well whilst editing the site And if we click back again we've got Things like background shadows and Layout as well that we can all be edited From this styles panel Fantastic also if we head over to pages And click on pages that'll open up all The pages that we've got obviously I Haven't got very many on this site as It's a demo site but if you hover over a Page and then click on the three little Dots here for actions you can also Select now set as homepage or set as Post page as well so you can set the Page as a blog post page from the full Site editor which is a fantastic little
Addition let's talk about some quality Of life improvements that will make Managing your content easier the query Loop block you know that thing that Displays your posts got a neat upgrade You can now choose whether to include Sticky posts or not okay so I'm just Creating a new post i'm going to add the Query block so forward slash query loop There we Go choose the pattern for it just going To select this pattern right here and Then once that's in place going to head Over here onto the right hand side Underneath sticky Post click drop down you can now see you Can ignore sticky posts as well and if You've ever wrestled with sticky posts Messing up your carefully planned layout You'll appreciate that one okay so Here's something that might not sound Exciting but is actually really Important wordpress is upgrading its Password security system they're Switching to something called brypt While you won't see any difference in How you log in your passwords will be Much better protected it's like WordPress quietly installed a better Security system while keeping your house Looking exactly the same and the best Part you don't have to do anything it All happens automatically when you Update there are also some nice touches
For specific needs better handling for Different languages in error messages Improve pattern organization and some Developer friendly updates that make Creating with WordPress more efficient So there you have it wordpress 6.8 isn't Reinventing the wheel but it is making That wheel roll a bit smoother whether It's the snappier page loads better Security or those small but mighty Design tweaks there's probably something Here that will make your WordPress life A little better drop a comment below and Let me know which of these updates You're most excited about and hey if you Found this helpful hit that subscribe Button for more WordPress tips and Updates i'll see you in the next
