Fueled+10up Leads the Way in the Making of WordPress 6.8
Jeff Paul on
Earlier this week, WordPress 6.8 was released, with a major focus on refinement and polish, including iterative improvements to block editing, website performance, and accessibility.
Once again, our team led the way in contributing to one of the internet’s largest open source projects, estimated to power 40% of websites. Twenty-four 10uppers contributed to WordPress 6.8 “Cecil”, with Jeff Paul as Release Coordinator, Joe McGill as Tech Lead, and Fabian Kaegy, Peter Wilson, and Mukesh Panchal as Noteworthy Contributors.
Other Fueled+10up contributors included Ajay Maurya, Ankit Gade, Ankit Gupta, Darin Kotter, Dharmesh Patel, Faisal Alvi, Harshal Kadu, Karthik Thayyil, Konstantinos Galanakis, Mohit Dadhich, Navneet Kaur, Rahul Prajapati, Severine Pozzo, Siddharth Thevaril, Sourabh Jain, Sumit Bagthariya, Thrijith Thankachan, Tyler Bailey, and Vikram Moparthy. We’d also like to recognize our partners at Google and Elementor for sponsoring some of our contributions during parts of this release cycle.
Key Updates in WordPress 6.8
WordPress 6.8 prioritizes quality-of-life improvements that elevate the everyday experience for editors, developers, and administrators alike. While it doesn’t introduce headline-grabbing features, the enhancements under the hood make for a faster, more secure, and more usable platform—especially for teams operating at scale.
Speculative Loading for Near-Instant Page Transitions. WordPress 6.8 introduces speculative loading, a performance feature that preloads or prerenders pages users are likely to visit next. This results in faster navigation and a more seamless experience—especially valuable for high-traffic, navigation-heavy sites. Developers can fine-tune behavior using the wp_speculation_rules_configuration filter, offering an easy performance boost without complex caching setups.
Stronger Password Security. WordPress now uses bcrypt for password hashing and BLAKE2b for other sensitive keys and tokens. These upgrades bring core security in line with modern best practices, offering stronger protection for user credentials—especially important for enterprise sites with large user bases.
Accessibility Improvements Everywhere. WordPress 6.8 delivers over 70 accessibility enhancements. These include standardized, screen-reader-friendly tooltips and admin notices with clear text prefixes like “Error:” and “Success:”. These updates improve usability for all editors and help large organizations meet accessibility standards with less effort.
Style Book Enhancements. The Style Book, previously exclusive to block themes, is now available in all themes. This unified visual reference helps teams preview global typography, colors, and block styles in one place, improving design consistency and collaboration. The updated navigation also makes it easier to explore reusable patterns and track visual changes as you edit CSS or use the Customizer—accessible under Appearance > Design.
Persistent Template View Mode. Editors can now choose to view content in full template context or content-only mode—and WordPress will remember their choice across sessions. This streamlines the editorial experience, allowing users to work in the view that best suits their content type, saving time and improving focus for larger editorial teams.
Smarter Query Loop Block for Dynamic Content. The Query Loop block now includes filters for excluding sticky posts, showing content by year, and listing child pages. Editors gain more control without needing custom code, making it easier to build dynamic content sections like yearly archives or subpage directories.
Streamlined Starter Content Experience. Starter content has been integrated into the block inserter under a new “Starter Content” category. This change simplifies onboarding by letting users drop in full-page layouts from the sidebar at any point—no separate modal required. It’s a more intuitive experience that accelerates setup and supports design consistency.
A release post on WordPress.com goes deeper into all of the little improvements.
Fueled+10up Takes the Lead in Driving WordPress
Leading up to the release of WordPress 6.8, in March, our team took the lead in contributions to the WordPress project. According to open contribution data, we had the highest number of WordPress Core contributions across 68 participating companies worldwide, with 72 total contributions – the most meaningful mark of impact on the software. We also had the third highest number of individual contributors that month, with 11 of us contributing in March.
Support the continued development of WordPress, and get in touch to let our WordPress experts build websites, integrations, and tools for your organization. Not only do we have uncommon expertise in the platform, every dollar you spend at Fueled+10up goes toward improving open source, license-free solutions like WordPress.