WordPress has moved one step closer to its next major release with the arrival of WordPress 6.9 Release Candidate 2 (RC2). In an announcement published by Akshaya Rane on the official WordPress.org News blog, the project confirms that RC2 is ready for developers, testers, and hosting providers to download and evaluate.
Rane emphasizes that, although release candidates are considered very close to final, WordPress 6.9 is still under development. As a result, RC2 should be tested on staging sites, not on production installations. With the final release planned for December 2, 2025, this phase is crucial for identifying and resolving any remaining bugs to ensure a seamless launch.
According to the article, testers have several options for trying RC2, including the WordPress Beta Tester plugin, a direct ZIP download, WP-CLI, and a browser-based Playground instance. The post also rounds up links to GitHub commits and closed Trac tickets since RC1, as well as recently published technical deep dives covering features such as the new Notes feature, Abilities API, interactivity improvements, Block Bindings updates, performance enhancements, and more.
Rane also reiterates that contributors of all kinds, testers, plugin and theme developers, hosting providers, and translators play a vital role in shaping each release. With RC2 marking the hard string freeze, translation teams are encouraged to finalize their work ahead of launch.
As the release cycle enters its final stretch, the WordPress Core team continues to encourage community participation, directing readers to testing guides, Trac reports, and Slack channels where ongoing collaboration occurs.