Real-time Collaboration (RTC) feature has been removed from the upcoming WordPress 7.0 release, and WordPress Org is going for an overhaul. Also, many new launches this week like: SleekRank, Universally, LoyaltyX, Core Forms, Swish Backup, SheetsPilot, and more. Plus, focus on many projects created under Radical Speed Month (RSM), at Automattic.
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What’s Buzzing in WordPress 💖
- SleekRank to Generate Pages… Dennis Yo, behind the Sleek family of plugins, has launched a brand new SleekRank plugin, which allows you to generate hundreds of pages from a single template and data source. To get started, define URL patterns, map your data – it will generate pages, each with its own URL, content, and metadata.
- WP Umbrella + Self-healing backups… Aurelio shared (Links X) the new self-healing backups feature at WP Umbrella. As a result, every backup is verified against your live site after it runs, and the system relaunches automatically if anything is missing from the archive.
- Rocket .net + Developer Hub… the team at Rocket .net hosting has launched an all-new Developer Hub and MCP Integration. It enables customers to effortlessly manage their WordPress websites from Claude, ChatGPT, and more – available to every Rocket .net customer at no additional cost.
- GeneratePress + Future of FSE… the team at GeneratePress published a detailed view of FSE (Full Site Editing) feature in relation to the GeneratePress theme. Like, it does not provide an advantage when using the combination of the GeneratePress Theme and Generate Blocks.
New Plugins: Universally, LoyaltyX, Forms, SheetsPilot
Universally for Translations… Syed Balkhi shared (Links X) about launching Universally translation platform. He added, “AI translates your entire website in minutes. Translations live on our cloud, not your database. So your site stays fast. Often faster, because we deliver from edge servers worldwide”.
LoyaltyX for WooCommerce… Yash Kapoor from DevDiggers shared a newly launched LoyaltyX (free version), a WooCommerce Points and Rewards plugin. It allows you to set up a loyalty program on your store and reward customers for purchases, referrals, reviews, signups, daily logins, and birthdays, which lets them redeem points for discounts, free shipping, or free products.
New Core Forms… Gaurav Tiwari has released the Core Forms plugin, a form building plugin for WordPress users, promising every feature in one plugin, one license, and one payment. The new homepage and pricing page are live.
New SheetsPilot… Amit Keren from Unlimited Elements has released a new SheetsPilot. It lets you manage, update, and automate your WordPress content from one smart spreadsheet. It is ideal for teams managing content, SEO, agencies, membership portals, WooCommerce stores, and more.
Free Plugins: Backup, Bibliography, Block & ACF Extra
Swish Backup… Denis Bosire shared (Links X) about releasing the free Swish Migrate and Backup plugin in the repository. It allows you to create full backups of your website, including the database, plugins, themes, uploads, and core files. Also, supports multiple cloud storage providers and easy site migration.
Borges Bibliography Builder… Daniel Knauss has released a free Borges Bibliography Builder plugin in the repository. It transforms pasted DOI(s), PubMed/PMID records, BibTeX entries, and citations into a semantically rich, auto-sorted reference list.
Block Format Bridge… Chris Huber has released the Block Format Bridge (GitHub) plugin and Composer package for content format conversion. It aims to convert AI generated content more reliably into the Block Editor, as bidirectional content format conversion (HTML, Blocks, Markdown).
Extra Fields for ACF… Kamal Hosen has released a free Extra Fields for ACF plugin in the repository. This extends Advanced Custom Fields with useful field types like Icon Picker, Address, Phone, Country Selector, Currency, Table Field, and more.
Extended WordPress Buzz 🔥
- Real-time Collaboration Removed… the real-time collaboration feature will not ship in the WordPress 7.0 release. Anne McCarthy shared, “Today, Matt made the decision to remove real-time collaboration from WordPress 7.0 and shared that he is not confident the current approach is robust enough to include in Core at this time, citing concerns around surface area, race conditions, server load, memory efficiency, and recurring bugs found through fuzz testing”.
- WordPress Org Overhaul… Rae Morey shared that Matt Mullenweg has assembled trusted group of contributors to overhaul WordPress.org and the ‘Five for the Future’ initiative. Matt added, “override anyone in WordPress.org, including each other, except for me” in their area of responsibility, and wanted to see WordPress .org become the best community hub the world has ever seen.
- Native Custom Post Types… Jamie Marsland noticed (Links X) a new thing merged into the Gutenberg trunk (GitHub), which brings native UI to create custom post types, no additional plugins required. After this, is the custom fields functionality is next? Probably!
- GravityKit Products + Stronger Trust… Casey Burridge shared how GravityKit products now give you a stronger reason to trust what you install. From now on, every GravityKit plugin update is cryptographically verified before installation. As a result, tampered packages are blocked before unpacking, protecting your site from supply-chain attacks automatically.
- LoopConf + Accessibility… the LoopConf 2026 has been announced, an event for developers and engineers who build with WordPress, is scheduled for September 23, 2026, in Grand Rapids, MI, USA. Also, the call for speakers is open for the online WordPress Accessibility Meetup 2026, which takes place twice per month via Zoom Webinars with live captions.
- WordCamp Asia & US… Julian Song shared (LinkedIn) about receiving over 160 applications for organizer roles at the upcoming WordCamp Asia 2027. The call for organizers is still open until May 31, 2026. The call for sponsors is open for WordCamp US 2026, scheduled for August 16 – 19, 2026, in Phoenix, Arizona, with plans ranging from $80,000 to $1,500.
- WP Milestones… the contact form plugin, Fluent Forms, has crossed an impressive 700,000+ active installs milestone in the plugins repository. Miriam Schwab shared (LinkedIn) about the Angie – Agentic AI from Elementor crossing the 10,000+ (now 20,000+) active installs milestone in the plugins repository.
Radical Speed Month, Projects by Automattician
RSM (Radical Speed Month) is a one month experiment where you pair up with someone, pick a project, and ship it. Many people at Automattic have created different projects, as a part of the RSM endeavor.
Open Claw Built on WordPress… Ronnie Burt is building HelloDolly .fun project, which is like Open Claw built on WordPress. He added, “I wanted to make Open Claw easier to use. So I started building on top of WordPress Multisite. An extensible open source base that already handles user management”.
- More RSM Projects
- WP Docs Health Monitor compares docs against source code.
- Woo Email Health detects broken email flows, deliverability risk.
- Concilium to monitor & manage multiple AI coding agent sessions.
- Making WordPress.org editing radically faster, by James Grierson.
- WooCommerce for Claude exploring the intelligence layer on top.
WP Core Buzz: Gutenberg & WordPress 7.0 RC3
Gutenberg 23.1v introduces two new experiments aimed at managing content inside the editor. First, a custom taxonomies management screen for you to create and edit taxonomies from settings. Second, a new media editor allowing better image manipulation in the WordPress media flow.
- More Core Buzz
- WordPress 7.0 Release Candidate 3 is now available for testing.
- Results of Real Time Collaboration performance testing analysis.
- Check what’s new in WordPress 7.0 by Carlo Daniele at Kinsta.
- Auto generate Block Editor Handbook docs from block .json
- WooCommerce REST API docs have a new home in dev docs.
- The ‘Make WordPress Slack’ is becoming more multilingual.
Big Updates: FluentCart, SureForms, & ProfilePress
FluentCart + Licensing Sites… 1.3.27v introduces a sites section in the licensing module, allowing you to quickly view all the information in one view, like where the specific license is running on which website. Also, now reactivated subscriptions now restart the full customer journey along with integrations and customer emails.
SureForms + Payment Types… 2.8v allows you to select multiple payment types in one form, like the ability to collect one-time payments and subscriptions side by side. Also, hidden fields can now act as a source for the payment block’s dynamic amount and support full calculations.
ProfilePress + New Addons… Collins Agbonghama shared about the release of Brevo for WordPress addon, which brings Brevo integration in ProfilePress. Also, Auto-Renewal Checkbox was released, which adds a simple checkbox that lets users opt in or opt out of automatic renewals.
Quick Bits 👍
- Your Say: Participate in WordPress Security Survey at Melapress.
- ManageWP login phishing via Google ads abuse, by Bill Toulas.
- Divi 4 to Divi 5 Trail Guide for migration process, by Nelson Miller.
- Dave Foy has opened enrollment for cohort 3 of Bricks Accelerator.
- Setting up rock solid video stream at flagship WordCamp events.
- Woo Design team joins X Twitter to hear from you, @designatwoo
- Perspectives & Insights
- What I’d build if I had to start over in WordPress today, by Devin.
- Why legacy software companies are screwed, by Jack Arturo.
- AI wants the receipts to back up your claims, by James Giroux.
- The agency case for open source & AI in picture, by Joost de Valk.
- WordPress & YouTube
- See how Builderius now generates full static sites from WordPress.
- Mat Rollings on how hackers exploit regular expressions in WP.
- Secret marketing machine behind WPBeginner, by Muntasir Sakib.
- Build a Blog with AI + Site Editor, 1.30+ hrs video by Pascal Claro.
- People of WordPress
- Orit Mutznik joined (Links X) Hostinger as Head of SEO & AI Search.
- Ken Yi shared (LinkedIn) about joining Automattic as GM, Ads.
Updates: Jetonomy, Mega Menu, Themify, & FormGent
Jetonomy + Private Mode… 1.4.1v of Jetonomy introduced a Public or Private community mode, where in Public mode anyone can read, and in Private mode every page requires sign-in. Also, the new activity Log admin page to check every event like post created, reply approved, member banned, role changed, and so on.
Etch + Mega Menu… Udoro ‘Cracka’ Essien shared about the newly released Mega Menu Pro and Header Builder for Etch Builder users. Preview it to see the mega menu in action. It can be purchased through the LTD option or the yearly subscription via Gumroad.
Themify + Multiple Backgrounds… Themify builder has released a new multiple backgrounds feature that lets you combine images and gradients in the same module, column, subrow, or row without relying on external design tools.
FormGent + Conditional Confirmation… 1.8v has added the Conditional Confirmation feature, enabling you to display the right response to the right person, with custom rules that sit on top of your default confirmation.
Updates: ElementsKit, CheckView, & Gravity Autogrow
ElementsKit + New Features… ElementsKit, an addon for Elementor users, has added three new features. First, Custom Login Form which allows you to build fully branded WordPress login pages. Second, Custom Registration Form for designing high-converting sign-up forms with social login, redirects & more. Third, Copyright Widget for auto-updating footer copyright text with dynamic shortcodes.
CheckView + Safer Testing… the team at CheckView has released 2.0.33v of their companion plugin, which makes automated form testing safer for live sites. Tests can now run without accidentally firing your Mailchimp signups, Zapier zaps, or other integrations – so you can monitor your forms in production without polluting your CRM.
Gravity Forms Autogrow… GravityWiz has released Gravity Forms Autogrow plugin, which makes the Gravity Forms Paragraph Text fields expand automatically as users type, up to a maximum height you control. Also works with Rich Text Editors.
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