Great news everyone! WordPress 7.1 “Mary Lou” was released on August 20, 2026! Here’s some highlights:
WordPress 7.1 makes styling and collaborating easier. Style how all blocks look across screen sizes and how the Button block responds to hover, focus, and active states, all without writing custom CSS. A streamlined media editor brings cropping, rotation, and metadata editing together in one workflow. Notes now support rich text and @mentions, and the admin bar travels with you into every editor, so the tools you rely on stay with you wherever you’re working.
Here are some more:
Apply responsive styles
Style content your way, on every screen.
WordPress 7.1 takes a major step toward built-in responsive design. Set how a block looks at different screen sizes directly in the editor, for both Global Styles and individual blocks, all without writing custom CSS.
Admin bar, now in every editor
Consistent navigation, from dashboard to editor.
The admin bar now stays with you across all editors, so you always know where you are. The admin bar also gets a small visual refresh.
A new way to crop
One dedicated workflow for editing your images.
A new media editor modal replaces the old inline cropping tool, bringing freeform and aspect-ratio cropping, flip, precise rotation, and metadata editing together in a single streamlined workflow. The familiar Crop button still gets you there, now opening a dedicated space to crop, rotate, and adjust images before publishing.
Inline notes with mentions and rich text
More ways to leave feedback.
Notes now support rich text and @mentions. Add bold, italic, code, and links so feedback reads clearly. Type “@” to pull up a list of collaborators to tag the right person directly, with built-in email notifications. Leave a note on a specific text selection instead of an entire block. Start more than one conversation on the same block. Collapse long notes to keep the margin tidy.
Improved media handling
Faster, more flexible image processing.
Image compression, resizing, and thumbnail generation now happen in the browser, reducing server load and producing smaller files — without hitting PHP memory limits or upload timeouts.
Media handling in 7.1 also includes native support for AVIF, HEIC, and HDR gain maps, adding native support for the image formats modern cameras and phones already produce.
About the Author: Tommy DuHamel
