What’s coming in WordPress 5.2 Features?WordPress 5.2 is likely to be released by the end of April 2019. The release of new version brings some improvements in the block editor, resolved bugs, site health check and some minor enhancements.
In our this post, we will show you What is coming with WordPress 5.2 features.
Note:- you can try the beta version on your system or on a staging environment using WordPress beta tester plugin.
WordPress 5.2 is still in development phase which means some features may not make it to final release. Let’s have a look at some of the upcoming features in WordPress 5.2.
What’s coming in WordPress 5.2 Features?
Improved Fatal Error Protection in WordPress:-
The most common errors in WordPress is fatal errors that stop users from using the admin dashboard. Then users are required to undo changes using FTP client or ask hosting company for support.
WordPress 5.2 has introduces a new recovery mode for site administrators. In case of fatal error a message will display “The Site is experiencing Technical Difficulties”.
Then WordPress will send an email to admin email address with special login link. By using that link you will be able to login admin area. After that, you can undo all changes that triggered fatal error. This feature is advantage for those who find it difficult to fix such errors.
Block Editor Updates in WordPress 5.2:-
The Gutenberg editor was introduced in WordPress 5.0 since then there has been continuous development on block editor to enhance its features. WordPress 5.2 continue that with new features and enhancements to block editor.
Performance improvement:-
New WordPress block editor is faster than the older classic editor. It could be slower when editing lengthier posts with tons of blocks.
WordPress 5.2 addressed that with performance improvements. Now it will save 35% of load time for massive posts. WordPress 5.2 also cut the keypress time in half which make it feel more responsive when you are typing.
Accessibility Improvements:-
The aim of WordPress is democratize publishing & making the software accessible for all users. WordPress 5.2 will bring several accessibility enhancements to block editor.
- Now the block editor will support reduced motion settings in user’s browser.
- Post url slug will have better labeling & help text which make it easier to locate.
- WordPress 5.2 will also bring improved screen reader experience with new speak messages. Existing speak messages also improved to be clearer.
- Block editor will have consistent and clear focus styling for keyword navigation through landmark.
Introduction of New Block:-
WordPress 5.2 also introduce new blocks in default editor. Some of them are already available as widgets but after 5.2 version you can use them in posts pages as well.
- RSS Block:- it allows you to easily fetch and display any RSS feed in your WordPress posts & pages.
- Calendar Block:- Display calendar of your blog posts allowing users to click on a date to view posts published on that day.
- Amazon Kindle Embed Block:- enables you to embed content from amazon kindle.
- Search Block:- add default search feature in content
- Tag Cloud Block:- display the tag cloud in content
A New Block Manager Tool:-
By default block editor comes with various default blocks. Also you have plugins & themes adding their own blocks as well.
However reality is that you’ll probably never use all those blocks. Most users are stick to handful of blocks for writing their content.
WordPress 5.2 introduces a new block management tool which allows you to hide block that you don’t want to use.
The block manager will list all blocks that is available on your site. Simply you can uncheck those blocks that you don’t want to use.
The minimum Php Version Requirements:
Millions of people all over the world use WordPress for their website platform. Using different hosting environments and companies.
That’s why WordPress supports some older Php versions which is little bit problematic. Users may even not realize that they can improve performance of their website using newer Php version.
WordPress 5.2 will set to required minimum Php version to 5.6, still which is old. The goal is to gradually increase minimum required version of Php with future releases.
Users on older Php version will see a notification that they are using older php version & need to update it.