WordPress 5.7 Beta 2

WordPress 5.7 Beta 2 is now available for testing!

This software is still in development, so it’s not recommended to run this version on a production site. Consider setting up a test site to play with it.

You can test the WordPress 5.7 Beta 2 in two ways:

• Install/activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (select the Bleeding edge channel and the Beta/RC Only stream)
• Direct download the beta version here (zip).

The current target for final release is March 9, 2021. That’s just four weeks away, so your help is vital to making sure that the final release is as good as it can be.

Some Highlights

Since Beta 1, 38 bugs have been fixed. Here is a summary of some of the included changes:

• Italicized text has been removed to improve accessibility and readability (#47326)
• Pause any playing media when closing the the media modal (#48562)
• Add Content-Security-Policy script loaders (#39941)
• Several fixes for the Twenty Twenty-One theme (#50454, #52432, #52433, #52473, #52477, #52374)
• Gutenberg editor support for custom spacing (#51760)
• Resolved Menu UI issues on medium-large screen sizes (#49576)
• Admin UI color palette: ensure that all interactive elements have an appropriate contrast ratio (#52402)

How You Can Help

Watch the Make WordPress Core blog for 5.7-related developer notes in the coming weeks, which will break down these and other changes in greater detail.

So far, contributors have fixed 157 tickets in WordPress 5.7, including 68 new features and enhancements, and more bug fixes are on the way.

Do some testing!

Testing for bugs is a vital part of polishing the release during the beta stage and a great way to contribute.

If you think you’ve found a bug, please post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. We would love to hear from you! If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on WordPress Trac. That’s also where you can find a list of known bugs.

Props to @audrasjb, @hellofromtonya, @francina and @desrosj for your peer revisions!