It was a huge WordPress community moment at the recently concluded WordCamp Asia 2026 in Mumbai, India. Now, trying to get back to the online WordPress world, and there is so much to unpack from – new plugins, product updates, security things, and many new projects from community members.
Draw Attention lets you turn any image into an interactive experience. Use the built-in drawing tool to add clickable hotspots with tooltips, links, and More Info areas. Drop it in with a shortcode or block, and you’re good to go.
WP Engine DE{CODE} 2026 brings developers, marketers, and digital leaders together to explore how AI is shaping the Intelligent Web. Explore through dedicated tracks combining expert-led sessions with live demos.
FluentCart combines performance, flexibility, and control in one powerful WordPress eCommerce plugin. Easily sell physical or digital products, hybrid product listings, subscriptions, memberships, and more.
Kinsta managed WordPress hosting with unparalleled speed, leveraging Google Cloud and the latest C3D servers, it ensures lightning-fast performance.
↑ Community Sponsors supporting this weekly
What’s Buzzing in WordPress 💖
- SEO Framework + Repo Explainer… Sybre Waaijer shared (Links X) about ‘The SEO Framework’ plugin on the Repo Explainer website. This website (new to me) also has the analysis of other plugins. Regarding the TSF plugin, “Compared with Yoast, Rank Math, and SEOPress, TSF is playing a different game. It is not trying to win on UI breadth or feature theater”.
- Sandboxed Extensions for WP… Vikas Singhal from InstaWP service, shared (Links X) about the WP Apps project, an open spec for sandboxed, permission-scoped WordPress extensions. This allows apps to run as isolated services with zero runtime cost, where they write data via API, WordPress renders it – involving no database access, no filesystem access, no PHP execution.
- WP Career Board… Varun Dubey shared about the idea behind the pro version of the WP Career Board plugin, which already has a free version. It allows you to set up a jobs board on your WordPress website, complete with jobs, applications, candidates, employer dashboards, and resumes.
- WPRankThis for Plugins… Brant has launched the WPRankThis platform, promising to help plugin authors rank their listings higher in the WordPress plugin directory. It provides information like listing health, keyword tracking, competitor tracking, and more.
New Community Projects from People of WordPress
Online Lunch & Learn… Michelle Frechette shared (LinkedIn) about launching a new Online Lunch and Learn, for remote Live educational sessions for you and your organization by Michelle. There is a list for corporate sessions and open session which anyone can join at a scheduled time.
Prospera X Business Magazine… Subhasis Chatterjee has launched Prospera X Business Magazine, promising to be India’s first youth magazine. It features insightful perspectives from decision-makers, aspiring entrepreneurs, students, and future leaders. Reach out to Subhasis to grab the digital or print version.
Beaver & Breakdance Agency… Nakul Chandra has launched a dedicated WP Dev Desk agency focused on users of Beaver Builder and Breakdance plugins. This also includes the option of white-label Dev Partner for Digital Agencies.
Principal WP Consulting… Stéphane JPM Boisvert shared (LinkedIn) about launching a new Principal WP project. “It’s a consulting practice I’ve been building since leaving XWP. The idea is that everyone gave their developers AI tools, but we haven’t really changed how we work to take advantage of them”.
Free Plugins: Template Jump, WhatsLink, Turn Off AI
Template Jump… Jason Cosper has released (LinkedIn) a free Template Jump plugin on GitHub. It adds an ‘Edit Template’ link right under ‘Edit Page’ in the admin bar so you can jump straight to the block template for whatever page you might be looking at.
WhatsLink Click Tracker… Federico shared a new WhatsLink Click Tracker plugin available in the repository and on their website. It natively tracks which pages drive WhatsApp button clicks, with UTM and referrer data stored directly in WordPress.
Turn Off AI in WP… Deepak Gupta has released a free Turn Off AI Features plugin in the repository, which allows you to control AI functionality in WordPress without touching code. To use, on the Settings > General screen, just Toggle AI on or off.
More Plugins: Acadlix LMS, FSE Assigner, Query Forge
Acadlix LMS… Praveen Kumar shared the newly launched Acadlix LMS plugin in the plugins repository, which allows you to create unlimited courses, lessons, quizzes, exams, assignments, and live classes. The Acadlix website has a pro version and more information.
FSE Template Assigner… Bas Buis brought to notice the new FSE Template Assigner plugin. It allows you to assign an FSE template conditionally by post type, specific posts/pages, category, tag (singular and archives) – with possibility to exclude by ID, slug, taxonomy, etc.
Query Forge… Miles shared about the free Query Forge plugin now available in the repository. The Query Forge website has the pro version and more info on how to use this visual query builder for Elementor page builder and WordPress.
Extended WordPress Buzz 🔥
- 2.5 Second Login Delay… Danny van Kooten shared (Links X) about implementing a 2.5 second login delay on the WordPress login page to check on bots. It also adds cool animation on the login button; check the code on GitHub for using it on your website.
- Contact Form 7 Freeze + New… during the recently concluded WordCamp Asia 2026 event, it was shared, there will be a feature freeze (more info here, here from X) on the hugely popular Contact Form 7 plugin. New project ‘Contactable .io’ has been announced for a possible launch in 2028.
- Prepare Plugins for WP 7.0… Benjamin Zekavica has published a checklist to prepare your plugins and sites for WordPress 7.0 release. It focuses on metaboxes and real-time collaboration, PHP 7.2 and 7.3, Block API versions, and the iframe, API keys in the connectors screen, and more.
- Gutenberg Update… 22.9v had a total of 131 PRs merged, with 5 first-time contributors. This update adds background gradients support to the Group block, and the command palette now has organized sections that make it easier to find and reuse actions.
- WooCommerce Update… 10.7v of WooCommerce was released on April 14, 2026. This update brings performance enhancements and cache priming, experimental block-based email editor improvements, analytics export filters, accessibility improvements, Cart and Checkout block fixes.
- WP Accessibility Updates… Rian Rietveld has updated the WP accessibility knowledge base. New updates are for alternative text for images in the content, using headings in the content, alternative text for images, SVGs and icons in development, heading structure in theme development, image animation and accessibility.
- WPMU Dev + More Premium Plan… the team at WPMU DEV has updated the premium plan with new premium perks. These include: $500 in on-demand development credits, $200 in proactive monitoring credits, $200/year in Hosting credits & half-price Hosting, dedicated account manager, and more.
- WordCamp Europe Sessions… the full schedule for WordCamp Europe 2026, happening in Kraków, Poland, from June 4 – 6, 2026, is now available. There will be two conference days, followed by the contributor day. András Guseo shared how you can add these sessions to your Calendar in one click.
WordCamp Asia 2026 Buzz & Next…
Last week was amazing, meeting so many WordPress people from around the world. I probably clicked the maximum number of photos ever to capture the event and people. Check Contributor Day (Twitter X here, LinkedIn here and here), Conference Day 1 (Twitter X here, LinkedIn here), and Conference Day 2 (Twitter X here, LinkedIn here and here). And, for travel and food vibes from the venue city, check Instagram.
- WordCamp Asia 2027 in Malaysia, teaser (Twitter, LinkedIn).
- Julian Song shared form to join as organizer at WC Asia 2027.
- 4th flagship event announced, WordCamp India coming soon.
- More WC Asia Buzz
- See video playlist of all sessions from WordCamp Asia 2026.
- How developers can grow, Anh Tran shared WC Asia talk.
- WCAsia 2026 opening keynote, virtually by James LePage.
- AI conversation nobody was prepared for, by Varun Dubey.
- What we learned (and loved) at WC Asia, by Ronnie Burt.
- Karen Alma shared highlights from WordCamp Asia 2026.
Updates: FluentCart, FormGent, Activity Log, Reviews
FluentCart + Q1 Features… the team at FluentCart has published a Q1 roundup of new features in FluentCart. Like bulk product management system got a complete overhaul, multi-country shipping zones with smarter interface, new visual email template builder, expanded Gutenberg Block library, and ghost products feature.
FormGent + New Features… FormGent, a form builder plugin for WordPress, has been updated with many new features like OTP verification, one-click switch forms, reworked with entries, UI improvement, single block payment and subscription. Also, the FormGent $59 LTD is also live on AppSumo.
Activity Log Pro + Alerts… 1.0.5v has introduced the Security Alerts feature, which enables you to receive instant email notifications for important security, content, and core/plugin events. You can also customize alert cool down periods, set multiple recipients, and choose which categories to monitor.
Smash Balloon + Review Popup… 2.5.0v update of Reviews Feed Pro has introduced the Review Alerts feature, which allows you to display animated review notification popups anywhere on your website.
More: Perfmatters, FluentAffiliate, Themify, Query
Perfmatters + UI Adjustments… 2.6.1v brings a quality of life update with additional plugin UI styles adjustments in preparation for WordPress 7.0v. Also, adjustments to the code snippets error handler initialization logic to avoid unnecessary handling if no relevant code snippets are active.
FluentAffiliate + Recurring Commissions… 1.4.0v has introduced recurring commissions for WooCommerce, allowing you to reward affiliates every time a subscription renews, not just on the first purchase. Also, added SliceWP Migration option and new data export feature to easily export affiliate data.
Themify + Global Styles… the team at Themify has added a new Style Variables feature to both the Builder and Customizer. You can define reusable variables once and assign them anywhere they are supported.
Slider Block + Query Loop… Ajit Bohra shared about adding the Query Loop support (LinkedIn) in the free BlaBlaBlocks Slider Block plugin. This enables you to build dynamic post sliders and carousels using the core query loop block.
Quick Bits 👍
- Behind the WPRoadmaps, Beth Livingston has passed away.
- Try new kintsu AI to vibe code your existing WordPress site.
- ‘Plugins’ in top navigation at WP Org, spotted by Matthias.
- Useful Tool: WP Block SVG Icon Preview, by Ronald Huereca.
- Rae Morey at Repository published recap of PressConf 2026.
- Katie Keith shared ideas (LinkedIn) & recap from PressConf.
- Study: Newspack’s insights lead to revenue & sales growth.
- Insights & More
- Matt Mullenweg on elevating individuals & contributions.
- Headless sites & cost of engineering vanity, by Jono Alderson.
- Claude Opus 4.7 for WP Plugin Development, 48 hour report.
- Matt Cromwell WordPress Product Growth (YouTube) & Strategy.
- Brian Gardner is betting big on Block Themes (podcast) WPBuilds.
- Let’s Learn
- WP Core Dev Environment Toolkit for 1st core contribution.
- Building a block theme from scratch, by Birgit Pauli-Haack.
- New Course: Build store with WooCommerce, by Wes Theron.
- Versioning in WordPress plugins & themes, by Javier Casares.
- People of WordPress
- Ganga Kafle shared about 5 years of journey at Rank Math.
- Brad Murray move from (LinkedIn) Beeper, Automattic to OpenAI.
WordPress Security: Supply Chain Hijacking
The WordPress security landscape is seeing more supply chain hijacking issues. The team at Patchstack published a detailed account of how the trojanized copy of the WowShipping Pro plugin installs a hidden remote access toolkit.
A few days back, Austin Ginder shared how someone bought 30 WordPress Plugins and planted a backdoor in all of them. WordPress org Plugins Team displayed a dashboard notice (by Anita on X) regarding this.
AI + WP Powers: Pressable, MainWP, & Builderius
Pressable MCP… the team at Pressable has launched Pressable MCP, providing a direct connection between Pressable hosting and AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT. Agencies and developers can now create sites, audit portfolios, change configurations, and pull activity logs through a simple prompt.
MainWP + AI Powers… users of MainWP can bring AI powers for website management through the MainWP MCP release. It allows AI-assisted workflows in MainWP to manage updates, site status, maintenance, and client operations.
Builderius + Multi Agents… Sense AI is now Multi-Model, allowing you to run multiple agents (Claude, Gemini, Codex) at the same time. Also, there is a built in full JS editor, and AI can create interactive components using just Builderius.
Leave single-server hosting in 2015. Choose 20i’s autoscaling Managed WordPress Hosting, built for traffic surges, complex sites & demanding PHP workloads, all without missing a beat.
Melapress builds professional-grade WordPress security & management plugins: WP Activity Log, Melapress Login Security, Melapress Role Editor, & WP 2FA.
ProfilePress is a modern WordPress membership plugin. Build paid membership sites, sell digital products, control content access with Stripe, PayPal & more.
↑ Community Sponsors supporting this weekly
