What’s New in WordPress 6.9

See the new features and functions in WordPress 6.9, which releases on December 2, 2025.

New Blocks

WP 6.9 ships with several new Blocks.

Accordion Block

It has collapsable sections and can be used for TOC (Table of Contents), or FAQs, or whatever else you may need.

But, it has few styling options.

So, I’m going to stick with the ones in the Kadence Blocks plugin as it just looks way better.

Time to Read Block

Not many themes have this type of info available, so I’m betting this will be a useful block for many bloggers.

It auto calculates the time to read the post based on the number of words.

Fit Text Option

The Paragraph and Heading blocks have been updated with a new Fit Text Option.

It allows the text to stretch to fit the container.

I have not seen this in action and don’t know how it cooperates with theme settings for where the various mobile size breaks hit.

Terms Query Block

This is for displaying taxonomy terms like Category and Tags.

I’m not sure how this is going to be used as those things are built into most theme designs.

If you find an example for it, let me know.

Math Block

If you blog about finances or education, you’ll be delighted with the new Math block that allows you to show equations.

Block Level Comments

This feature was formerly called Notes. 

It’s handy for sites that have a team of contributors, as they can now leave a comment directly on a block. 

For example, let’s say one contributor is writing the content and doing the overall layout of a post. And another contributor will be providing the images. The first contributor can do their part and leave a note on empty image blocks for which image goes where. Then the second contributor can simply add them in those spots later.

Hide Blocks on Frontend

Have you ever wanted to prepare a portion of your content in a post ahead of time, but didn’t want it to show on the actual published post until a later date?

The new Hide Blocks function in WP 6.9 will allow you to do that.

For years we’ve had plugins that allow us to hide a block of content to become visible on a specific date that you assign.

While this new Hide Blocks function in WP 6.9 doesn’t yet have the capability to auto publish the hidden block later, my bet is that it will some day.

And that may be one less plugin we need down the road.

Border Radius

Designers can now define custom border radius for all blocks that can support that style.

This will help them deliver a consistent look.

For any blocks I intend to use a radius on, I usually defer to Kadence Blocks instead of native WP blocks.

So, having the borders defined by the theme may encourage me to try native blocks instead. That said, I may still want the option to customize the border on a per-block basis, and I’m not sure the native WP blocks will allow for that yet.

Custom Social Links Block

New social platforms are popping up all the time.

And adding that icon to your Social Links block sometimes required coding, especially to style it properly.

The Social Links block now includes ways to add any platform with no coding.

They claim you no longer need a plugin to do this either.

But, what works for you may depend on where you want to show those social icons, as some themes may not support blocks in those areas.

Abilities API

This was inevitable.

AI has officially become a part of WP core code.

The new Abilities API provides developers with a unified registry so that they can have WP interact directly with AI automation tools and systems.

We already have hundreds of AI plugins in the WP repository that have all hacked together their own APIs and ways of connecting to WP, especially block formatting for the content.

A good example of this is an AI writer that is connected to ChatGPT and formats the AI output into blocks of text and images or such.

Some starter themes auto populate the page you’re building in much the same way.

Given the security and resource usage involved in these connections, I’m sorry it took WP so long to standardize a registry.

But, it’s here now and I think we’ll see an even bigger explosion of AI integration.

My AI Concern

My concern with integrating AI into sites has always been, and will remain, security and resources.

Unfortunately, I’m in the extreme minority with my concerns – for now.

Once these vibe coded plugins start getting hacked, everybody will finally start being concerned too.

And guess what will take the blame – WordPress.

In my opinion, WP is moving too slow and doesn’t have adequate resources in place to ensure AI plugins are being kept updated. Nor are they looking at the performance toll – that includes the Performance team, as they are too busy poking around in things that shouldn’t be their concern – like OpCache at the hosting.

My contracts with my site audit Hub clients require that they ask me before making major changes to their site, and that includes adding AI-endowed features.

That way, no matter what over-the-moon function is promised, I’ll have the opportunity to test the cost of that function in both security and performance first.

I have yet to say to any client request. What I have been able to do is help the find a better way to reach their goal so that it doesn’t bork their site – and likely a cheaper way too.