What’s New in WordPress 6.6: New Design Elements, Synced Patterns, and More

WordPress 6.6 “Dorsey” is now out!

Named after the legendary American Big Band leader, Tommy Dorsey, 6.6 is the second major update of 2024. Moreover, it’s the 50th WordPress release ever:

 

As always, the WordPress core team did not disappoint. “Dorsey” includes a total of 299 Core Track tickets, along with:

• 392 enhancements
• 462 bug fixes
• 16 performance optimizations
• 46 accessibility improvements

Simply put,  WordPress 6.6 brings a new level of creativity, usability, and efficiency to building and maintaining websites.

Source: WordPress X account

Here’s a quick tour of what this latest update offers.
 

Performance Updates

While WordPress 6.5 introduced major performance improvements like support for fetchpriority, 6.6 comes with some more niche optimizations like:
 

1. Removing redundant WP_Theme_JSON calls

By eliminating unnecessary calls to WP_Theme_JSON, the system reduces the processing overhead, resulting in quicker page load times. This is because fewer resources are used to process theme-related JSON data.
 

2. Disabling Autoload for Large Options

Disabling autoload for large options prevents them from being loaded on every page request. This reduces the amount of data fetched from the database, leading to faster query execution times and reduced memory usage.

Furthermore, by only loading large options when needed, the initial load time for each page decreases, resulting in a quicker user experience.
 

3. Eliminating Unnecessary Polyfill Dependencies

A polyfill dependency is a piece of code (usually JavaScript) that implements a feature on web browsers that do not natively support it. Polyfills allow developers to use modern web standards and features in their code while ensuring compatibility with older browsers that may not support those features.

Removing polyfills not required by most users or modern browsers decreases the overall size of JavaScript files. This leads to faster download and execution times for the browser.

Furthermore, with fewer polyfills to manage, the codebase becomes easier to maintain and update, reducing the risk of bugs and compatibility issues.

All this can improve your Core Web Vitals and especially your Interaction to Next Paint (INP) score. 
 

4. Lazy-Loading Post Embeds

Lazy-loading post embeds is a new feature that ensures below-the-fold elements are only loaded when they come into the viewport. This reduces the page's initial load time, as only essential resources are loaded first.

As a result, users experience faster access to the page's main content without waiting for all embedded content to load. This leads to a smoother browsing experience and higher user satisfaction.

Synced Pattern Overrides

Block Binding API was first introduced in WordPress 6.5, allowing users to connect block attributes and custom fields. With WordPress 6.6, a second iteration of the API unlocks an enhancement called Synced Pattern Overrides.

What is its benefit?

Well, there are two types of block patterns:

• Synced block patterns – all changes made apply to every occurrence of a pattern on your entire website
• Standard (not synced) block patterns – changes only affect a specific pattern instance

Synced Pattern Overrieds sits in the middle. 

Thanks to the Block Bindings API, you can now: 

1. Create block patterns that maintain consistent structure across your website and automatically update in line with customizations made to their structure and style in the site editor.
2. Modify the content of individual instances without impacting other instances of the same pattern on the site.

For instance, you can now change the text in a pattern on one page without affecting other pages using the same pattern.
 

Rollback auto-updated plugins

One of the most anticipated, if not the most, improvements is automatic rollback for plugin updates, which offers a new level of security for your site. 

If an auto-update breaks your site, WordPress will now automatically revert to its previous stable version. The rollback process is seamless, ensuring your site remains up and running smoothly. 

WordPress will email admin users if an auto-update fails. Additionally, if the site has debug mode enabled with error logging, the event will be recorded in the error log.

 

New Design Elements

WordPress 6.6 introduces numerous new customization options for designing and stylizing your site. Here are some of them:
 

Site background image

Improve your site engagement rates with the new site-wide background image option in the Site Editor. Whether you opt for a bold, full-bleed photo or a playful graphic pattern, you have complete control over size, position, and repetition.

Source: WordPress.com
 

Set negative margins

You can now set negative margins, providing you with precise control over layout design. Before WordPress 6.6, this feature was only available in theme.json, while now it’s easy to apply negative margins to elements to create overlapping effects.

To use it, just head to the margin settings of a block and manually enter a negative value.

 

New keyboard shortcut to group blocks

Improve your editing efficiency by grouping blocks together. Simply select the block you want to group and use the keyboard shortcut:

• CTRL + G on Windows
• Command + G on MacOS
   

Custom default shadow styles 

In the Styles menu, you can now edit shadow effects, including modifying the default shadow style for images, buttons, and more. Additionally, you can create custom shadow styles, giving you complete control over this subtle yet powerful design element.
 

Site Editor Improvements

Section Styles for Themes

Section Styles is a new feature that allows theme developers to define section-specific styles within the theme.json file. It provides options like unique color palettes, typography, and layout adjustments for individual sections.

 

This is made possible thanks to the extension of block style variations to support the styling of inner blocks and elements, benefiting from the reduced styling specificity for Global Styles.
 

Better Data Views in Site Editor

WordPress 6.6 massively improves the data views in the Site Editor, providing a more user-friendly experience for all site owners.

You can now navigate the site editor and quickly discover and manage all your patterns, template parts, pages, and styles.

Source: WPBeginner
 

Wrap Up

This is not an exhaustive list of all the enhancements in the latest WordPress update. The WordPress 6.6 field guide includes many other new features, such as:

• Interactivity API
• Options API
• PHP Support

And more.

All excellent reasons to download WordPress 6.6. 

Remember to back up your website beforehand. And as always, if you want to pass your Core Web Vitals and boost your site's performance, install NitroPack.

 

*video source: WordPress.com