State of the Word 2023 Video + Recap

Celebrating the previous year in WordPress and looking ahead to the future.

December 12, 2023

Jeremy Anderberg

Yesterday, WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and Gutenberg Lead Architect Matías Ventura took the stage in Madrid, Spain and offered the WordPress community a recap of 2023’s progress as well as a look ahead to what’s coming in 2024 and beyond. If you missed the livestream, it’s well worth watching.

Below, you’ll find the State of the Word video, a short recap of the keynote address, and finally the Q&A session video.

Watch State of the Word 2023

Highlights from 2023

Before getting into the future of the WordPress project, Matt and Matías shared a bit about the progress made in 2023. The high points, especially as they relate to WordPress.com:

  • On May 27th, WordPress turned 20. What a milestone to celebrate! How rare it is to find something that has lasted on the internet for 20 years.
  • The WordPress community hosted 70 WordCamps in 33 countries. WordCamps are events for anyone using or building with WordPress—which includes you! Read our team’s recap of WordCamp US.
  • Openverse won the Open Education Award for Excellence. Openverse is an open-source media library where you can easily access free-to-use images, audio, and more. This library is available right from WordPress.com whenever you insert an image.
  • WordPress launched its incredible Playground tool. This feature allows you to deploy a WordPress environment right within your browser. This is a game-changer for developers and in the future may help beginner WordPress users test new plugins or features. Learn more about WordPress Playground here.
  • Twenty-Twenty Four, WordPress’s new default theme, is now available. Fully customizable, this theme was designed to be flexible, versatile, and applicable to any website. 
  • The Site Editor’s capabilities soared this year. On the writing front, we saw the addition of footnotes, distraction free writing mode, and much more. On the design front, we saw more intuitive styling, easier customizations, and a huge number of new themes available. Scroll through our blog archives to explore these various updates.

Where WordPress is headed next

  • Seamless migration. In 2024, WordPress will seek to “unlock the web” with a focus on migration tools. Whether coming from another WordPress host or another platform altogether (like Wix or Squarespace), WordPress is working to make those transitions as painless as possible. Learn more about the Data Liberation project here.
  • Real-time collaboration. Multiple users will be able to edit content and design at the same time, with changes synced in real-time.
  • Next-level patterns. The work on patterns accelerated in 2023 and will grow to new heights in 2024, which includes features like more powerful syncing, more customization, and improvements to the site-wide implementation of patterns.
  • Performance improvements. Typing, uploading media, publishing—all of these actions will happen 2-3 times faster in the upcoming WordPress releases.
  • Dashboard/admin refresh. The backend of your site will get a makeover, taking on more of the look and feel of the Site Editor throughout the course of 2024.

Q&A session

After the main presentation, Matt took a number of questions about WordPress and the open source project as a whole:

There were a number of questions that came in during the Q&A portion that Matt wasn’t able to address due to time constraints. Matt instead answered those in a blog post yesterday, which you can check out here.

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20 Comments

Comments are closed.

  1. Ana Daksina Dec 12th at 11:53 pm

    I am so grateful for this platform.

    Liked by 4 people

  2. kenmabuhay Dec 13th at 7:44 am

    Very enlightening. Also shows the drive for the future.

    Liked by 5 people

  3. Arpita Singh Dec 13th at 2:03 pm

    Damn! Considering WordPress’ functioning and accessibility, I feel it is somewhat underrated and yet to be discovered by many.

    Liked by 5 people

  4. Abity Ge Dec 14th at 3:29 pm

    I am happy to join this group. Also shows the drive for the future.

    Liked by 2 people

  5. Rashford iceman Dec 14th at 9:02 pm

    I’m also glad to be on this platform

    Liked by 1 person

  6. muhammad yasin Dec 15th at 2:14 pm

    I am so grateful for this platform

    Liked by 5 people

  7. gigajuicy Dec 16th at 8:07 am

    Great work, please keep up!

    Liked by 1 person

  8. ILovePDF 2 Dec 16th at 10:39 pm

    What an exciting update on the State of the Word 2023! 🌐✨ It’s incredible to see the progress made and the promising future ahead for WordPress. 👏

    The highlights from 2023 are truly impressive, especially WordPress turning 20 – a remarkable milestone! 🥳 The 70 WordCamps across 33 countries and the recognition of Openverse with the Open Education Award showcase the global impact of the WordPress community. 🌍💙

    I’m particularly intrigued by the WordPress Playground tool – a game-changer for developers and a fantastic resource for beginners exploring new plugins and features.

    Like

  9. raymondptl Dec 17th at 2:13 am

    Pls unsubscribe me from your mailing list.

    Like

  10. Konrad Krajnc Dec 17th at 1:20 pm

    Damn, success we shall reap

    Liked by 2 people

  11. Victor Ogbu Dec 18th at 11:10 am

    am so grateful

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Protector Dec 18th at 6:07 pm

    I am grateful

    Liked by 1 person

  13. Umesh Dec 19th at 12:09 am

    Good

    Liked by 1 person

  14. Md. Zahir Babar Dec 19th at 5:42 am

    I feel honored to become a member of this platform.

    Liked by 1 person

  15. Sentimental Journeys Dec 22nd at 5:07 pm

    Thank you for sharing.

    Liked by 2 people

  16. Kallol Mazumdar Dec 24th at 5:05 pm

    Thanks for sharing buddy!

    Liked by 2 people

  17. Sowmy m Jan 3rd at 9:41 am

    I am so thankful for this platform

    Liked by 3 people

  18. amirmoghtassed9393 Jan 7th at 12:00 am

    Thank you for platform

    Liked by 1 person

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