WordPress 5.5 Coming On 11th August 2020
It doesn't seem that long ago since we all updated to WordPress 5.4, and here we are, just 5 days ago WordPress 5.5 Release Candidate was made public, with the final release scheduled for 11th August 2020 which is just 9 days away.
This new version will bring a host of new features, some of which are:
WordPress 5.5 will be the second major release of 2020 and aims to include a navigation menus block, automatic update's for plugins and themes, a block directory, XML sitemaps, lazy loading, and update Gutenberg to the latest release version as we continue to focus in 2020 on full site editing via Gutenberg.
Source: Make WordPress Core
Block Editor UI Improvements
WordPress 5.5 is coming with major UI improvements to the block editor. Some of the things you will notice are borders around the toolbars and buttons, new icons, and focus highlighting as you move across blocks while writing. The (+) button for adding a new block has also changed and is now more noticeable and now looks more like a button.
If you are still using the Classic Editor and you would like to switch to the Block Editor (Gutenberg), you might find the training below useful.
How To Convert Classic Editor Posts To Block Editor (Gutenberg)
A New Block Directory
WordPress 5.5 is also coming with a new block directory. These are WordPress plugins that add new blocks to the block editor, and there are already dozens of new blocks available. The block directory is also built-in to the "Add New block" search, allowing you to simply search for a feature, and if there is no block that matches your search, then it will automatically show matching results from the block directory.
Block Patterns
WordPress 5.5 is also introducing block patterns, which are ready-to-use blocks with commonly used settings to help you quickly add them to make layouts. There are currently a handful of patterns already available, and these will grow as plugins, WordPress themes, and WordPress core continues adding more patterns.
Streamlined Block Navigation
WordPress 5.5 is also making it easier to move blocks around inside the content editor. You will be able to click on the block handle and drag it up and down. Another improvement will be the ability to select the parent block in the nested blocks like the group or columns block.
Inline Image Editing
WordPress currently allows you to do some basic image editing such as crop, resize, rotate, and scale, however, to do that you need to open the image in the media library. WordPress 5.5 will allow you to edit images inline without leaving the block editor. This will allow you to scale, crop, rotate, and resize an image on the spot.
Auto Updates for WordPress Plugins & Themes
WordPress comes with a powerful update's management system, which also allows you to enable auto-update's for WordPress plugin and themes by changing your WordPress configuration or by using a third-party plugin. WordPress 5.5 will allow you to enable automatic update's for plugins and themes via the admin dashboard. You will be able to go to the plugins page and click on the "Enable auto-update's" next to the plugins that you want to be automatically updated. You will also be able to enable auto-update's for themes, by simply clicking on a theme on Appearance -> Themes and then click on the "Enable auto-update's" link.
New Default WordPress XML Sitemaps
As we all know, an XML sitemap is a file that lists all of your website content in XML format. This helps search engines such as Google to easily discover and index your content. All of the top WordPress SEO plugins come with an XML sitemap feature built-in. WordPress 5.5 will come with a built-in sitemaps feature enabled by default. It will create a new sitemap index file called wp-sitemap.xml which will contain links to all other sitemap files that it will generate.
The default Sitemap feature will support all post types, taxonomies (categories, tags and custom taxonomies), and author archives. However, it will still only be providing the basic required functionality of the XML sitemap protocol. If you are already using a WordPress SEO plugin that comes with its own XML Sitemaps, which you should be if you have followed the training here at Wealthy Affiliate, then you don’t need to do anything. The three biggest SEO plugins All in One SEO Pack, Yoast SEO and Rank Math have decided to continue providing their own sitemaps because they offer advanced customisation features to help you get higher rankings.
Default Lazy Load Images in WordPress
As we know, images take longer to download than text and this increases our page load times. Optimising images for the web can help you boost the speed and performance of your WordPress website. One of the most commonly used techniques, but also underused, is to lazy load images. This technique only downloads images that are visible on the user’s browser screen. Other images are downloaded as a user scrolls down your website. WordPress 5.5 will make it a default option for all sites by adding the "loading" attribute to the img tag. This attribute is supported by all modern web browsers, except for Safari.
This is an important performance boost not just for your WordPress website but for the whole internet. WordPress is the most popular website builder, and it is used by more than 35% of all websites on the internet. Lazy loading images will save a lot of bandwidth and improve the performance of WordPress hosting servers. It will also make websites faster which is always a good thing.
Update Themes and Plugins with a Zip File
Sometimes WordPress plugin or theme update's may not work as expected in which case you have to manually update a theme or plugin. This is currently only possible by using an FTP client such as FileZilla. WordPress 5.5 will allow you to do this inside of the WordPress dashboard. You will be able to go to Plugins -> Add New and click on the Upload button. You can then upload the zip file you downloaded for the plugin update, and WordPress will automatically detect that this plugin is already installed and give you an option to "Replace current with uploaded". You will also be able to install update's for WordPress themes by going to Appearance -> Themes and clicking on the "Add New" button. After that you can click on the Upload Theme button to upload your themes zip file. WordPress will detect that you already have that theme installed and will give you the option to "Replace current with uploaded" version.
There are a lot of changes coming in WordPress 5.5 as you can see, both in the form of new features, but also some defaults being applied. The main ones that you will want to keep an eye on are the XML Sitemaps and the Image Lazy Loading, as you may already have plugins configured to take care of this.
I would love to hear your thoughts and comments on these new changes that are coming, please feel free to leave them below and I will get back to you.
Recent Comments
119
Good morning Chrystopher,
I hope you're doing well and had a great weekend.
Thank you for the very useful and helpful information. I really like the idea of the auto update for themes and plug-ins, it sounds like a great idea. Is it as good as it sounds?
Have a great day.
Roy
You're welcome Roy :-) I've been used to auto-updates for themes and plugins for a while now, as I have them automated via other means, so to have these included with core should be a good thing yes. Especially as WA provide daily backups, so should anything go wrong, they can always be restored back to up to 24 hours prior. And thank you, you too :-)
Thank you Chrystopher,
This sounds like a very useful idea, it's great that Wealthy Affiliate do daily backups. Thank you for your help, it's appreciated.
Roy
I am definitely looking forward to this update. Having the lazy load automatically configured is a bonus. I am already using All in one SEO, so I will not need to make any changes as you say.
I am also looking forward to the updates to Gutenberg. To be honest I have not used Gutenberg as much as I should as I have used Elementor which came with my current Theme.
Thank you for the update.
Alex
You’re welcome Alex :-) And yes, the SEO Plugins should be ok. I know Rank Math have already released their update to disable the WP Sitemap feature. Just waiting for All in One SEO to do the same. I haven’t checked Yoast just yet.
Hi Chrystopher, I already have a lot of those feathers for the last couple of weeks. They take a bit of getting used to but I am there. The biggest problem I have is that when I highlight a piece of text to change it and it at the top of the block. The copy, cut and paste line comes up and covers the block heading, so it is hard to get the button that you want to click on. I haven't taken the time yet to work out how to overcome it, but I think I should, as a total annoyance.
When you say that you "already have a lot of those feathers for the last couple of weeks", could you elaborate a little for me, as these features haven't been officially released yet, unless you are running a Beta/Release Candidate of WordPress? Would you also like to send me a screenshot of the issues you are facing, and I will see if I can help resolve them for you?
Very interesting.
I use the classic editor. I like it and I find it easy to use. I once tried to use the block editor and it was very confusing and it made no sense to me ... I probaly need to get used to it or follow some training or so to familiarize myself with it, because everyone seems to love it ;-)
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Hi!
I have a question related to the Wordpress update post by ChrystopherJ.
With these new updates, do we still need a lazy-load plugin? I currently have a3 Lazy Load, but I would love to be able to take it off if this new update is doing that for us now:)
Thanks!
Heidi
WP 5.5 does include lazy load by default so technically you do not need an extra plugin for this. Same goes for sitemaps. Although most members here will have sitemaps within their SEO plugin.
The updated version of Wordpress has a lazy loader included. You won't need the plugin.
YAY! That's what I wanted to hear! Thank you!
Ahh, that makes sense! I wanted to double check. I’m always looking for ways to trim things down:) thank you!
Thank you Mark and Jim for jumping in :-) Yes, WordPress 5.5 includes Lazy Loading of images and its own Sitemap.
If you have a plugin that only performs image lazy loading, then you can uninstall this. However, if it does more than image lazy loading, I.e. videos (iframe’s) and/image optimisation and/or caching etc, then I would keep those plugins.
As for Sitemaps, if you use All in One SEO, Yoast or Rank Math, then I would keep those plugins with Sitemaps turned on, as they are more advanced and contain more control and configurations. If you use Google XML Sitemaps, I would uninstall it and use one of the three plugins above. Either way, do not rely on the new WordPress 5.5 Sitemap, as you have no control over what is included within it.
I may need to keep the Lazy Load after all, as I believe it also does videos.
I do have All in One SEO, so I'll keep that going with sitemaps.
Thank you, Chrystopher!
You’re welcome Heidi :-)