A new update from Amy Kamala on WordPress.org News confirms that WordPress 6.9 Release Candidate 3 (RC3) is now ready for testing, marking one of the last major checkpoints before the scheduled final release on December 2, 2025. Kamala emphasizes that while RC versions are close to final, RC3 is still under active development and should be evaluated only in staging environments not on production sites.
As Kamala explains, testers have four ways to work with RC3: via the WordPress Beta Tester plugin, direct ZIP download, a WP-CLI command, or the browser-based WordPress Playground, which requires no setup and has become a quick testing favorite. This phase focuses on polishing the release, and Kamala emphasizes that community testing is crucial to ensuring WordPress 6.9 ships in its highest quality state.
For those seeking more detailed technical information, Kamala directs readers to the WordPress 6.9 Field Guide, along with links to recent Gutenberg commits and Core Trac tickets closed since the RC2. The post reiterates the importance of participation from all parts of the ecosystem: testers, plugin and theme authors, hosting providers, and anyone curious about the release cycle.
Kamala also highlights specific contribution paths: testing new features, validating upgrade processes, reporting issues through the support forums or Trac, updating plugin and theme compatibility declarations, and running hosting-level checks to ensure seamless deployment at scale.
With RC3 now live, Kamala’s update signals that WordPress 6.9 is entering its final stretch. The success of the release, she notes, relies heavily on community feedback in the days leading up to launch.