WordPress has moved fast this year. Version 7.0 arrived on May 20 and 7.1 followed on August 19, so if you look after client sites, here is a plain summary of what matters.
AI in core, on your terms. 7.0 added a provider agnostic AI client and a Connectors screen, so plugins can talk to AI services through one standard setup. API keys for providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google are supported. It's all optional, and a good habit is to treat anything it writes, like titles or alt text, as a first draft.
Responsive styling without custom CSS. In 7.1 you can set block styles per viewport (tablet and mobile) in the Site Editor, and developers can define custom breakpoints in theme.json. Hover, focus and active states start with the Button block. For many small sites that means fewer custom CSS files to maintain.
Better teamwork. Notes bring asynchronous comments with a suggestion mode to the editor. Real time co-editing is still behind feature flags, so I wouldn't promise it to clients yet.
The Classic block stays. The plan to remove it from the inserter was reversed in July, which is good news for older content.
Two housekeeping items for developers. Blocks that use an older Block API version may misbehave in the iframed editor, so check that your custom blocks declare apiVersion 3. React 19 is also expected to become the default in a later release, so now is a good time to test your plugins.
My update routine is simple: take a backup, test on staging, update plugins and theme first, then core, and check your key pages and forms afterward.
What are you most looking forward to in 7.1? I'd love to hear what you noticed first.
Originally published on Substack. I also write on Medium. More WordPress notes at expertwebdeveloper.in.
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