by WPadawan WordPress

WordPress 7.2 Beta 1 Arrives: Meet Ipsum, the First Default Theme Without a Year in Its Name

WordPress 7.2 reaches a key milestone today. According to the project’s official developer roundup for October, Beta 1 is scheduled for October 20. That is the point where the feature list is meant to freeze and testing begins in earnest. If you build or maintain sites, this is the moment to try your themes and plugins against what is coming.

The schedule

The project’s own marketing notes put the release candidate on November 17 and the final release on December 8. Third-party guides give slightly different final dates, from December 8 to 10. Treat the exact day as provisional until the core team confirms it. The roadmap itself says 7.2 is meant to be the last major release of the year.

Ipsum replaces the yearly default theme

The headline change is the new default theme, Ipsum. It ends the long-running habit of naming default themes after the year. The core team says default themes will now have their own names and will change when the design calls for it, not on a calendar schedule. The name comes from lorem ipsum, the placeholder text that fills a layout until real content arrives.

Ipsum is described as an intentionally minimal blog theme and a blank canvas. Reports on the theme mention a quiet layout, dotted underlines and optional elements such as headers and sidebars that stay hidden until you add them. One write-up says its colour combinations meet WCAG AA contrast requirements. It is based on an Automattic theme called Ichi. Ipsum becomes the default for fresh installs. Existing sites keep whatever theme they already use.

What else is in 7.2

  • Design tools on more blocks: the developer roundup says design controls are now switched on across nearly every core block.
  • Notes with suggestions: the roadmap says Notes gains the ability to add suggestions and emoji reactions, for more interactive collaboration. DreamHost compares the suggestion mode to “Suggesting” in Google Docs.
  • Responsive styling for third-party blocks: the roadmap extends it to blocks with custom controls. DataViews and DataForms also let third parties control which fields and layouts are available.
  • A rebuilt wp_kses: the sanitising function is now built on the HTML API.
  • A redrawn icon set: core icons now use strokes instead of fills.

Some features are not coming. One analysis of the roadmap notes that real-time editing will not be in 7.2 and that AI features stay in a separate plugin. Another guide says nothing on the list is confirmed until it ships.

Plugin releases get an automated security review

The developer roundup also notes that plugin releases in the WordPress.org directory now go through an automated security review. It is a process change rather than a core feature. It is worth watching after a run of plugin-related security incidents.

What site owners and developers should do

  • Spin up a staging site and install the beta. Don’t test it on a live store.
  • Check custom themes and plugins against the new block supports and the sanitising changes.
  • If your onboarding or handover documents name a specific default theme, plan to update them once Ipsum is confirmed.
  • Keep your production sites on the latest stable 7.1 security release in the meantime.

Betas exist to find breakage, so report anything odd you hit. With roughly seven weeks to the planned final release, feedback during this window can still change what ships.

Fuentes