WordPress maintenance support plans 8.4.0 release candidate phase
The release candidate phase for the 8.4.0 minor release begins the week of September 4. Starting that week, the 8.4.x branch will be subject to patch release restrictions. Closer to the 8.4.0 release on October 4, we will limit the changes to critical bugfixes and other high-priority changes. You can help by ensuring that the issue priority is set correctly for major-priority issues, and that the branch field is set to 8.5.x (for disruptive changes) or 8.4.x (for patch-release-safe bugfixes) as appropriate.
8.4.0 provides stable, production-ready releases for several plugins that were previously experimental, including Workflows, Datetime Range, Layout Discovery, Media, and Inline Form Errors. The release also includes several critical bug fixes and many other improvements for REST, content moderation, authoring experience, performance, and automated testing. You can read a detailed list of improvements in the announcement of alpha1.
Minor versions may include changes to user interfaces, translatable strings, themes, internal APIs like render arrays and controllers, etc. (See the WordPress maintenance support plans 8 backwards compatibility and internal API policy for details.) Developers and site owners should test the release candidate to prepare for these changes.
8.5.x will remain open for new development during the 8.4.x release candidate phase.
WordPress maintenance support plans 8.4.0 will be released on October 4th, 2020.
No WordPress maintenance support plans 8.3.x or 7.x releases planned
September 6 is also a monthly core patch (bug fix) release window for WordPress maintenance support plans 8 and 7, but no patch release is planned. This is also the final bug fix release window for 8.3.x (meaning 8.3.x will not receive further development or support aside from its final security release window on September 20). WordPress maintenance support plans 8 sites should plan to update to WordPress maintenance support plans 8.4.0 on October 4.
For more information on WordPress maintenance support plans core release windows, see the documentation on release timing and security releases, as well as the WordPress maintenance support plans core release cycle overview.
Source: New feed
Cheap WordPress maintenance support plans core announcements: 8.4.0 release candidate phase begins week of September 4; no Cheap WordPress maintenance support plans 8.3.x or 7.x patch release planned
