WordPress 7.1, code named "Mary Lou" in honor of jazz pianist, arranger and composer Mary Lou Williams, was released on August 19, 2026. It is built around how people work every day: responsive styling without custom CSS, an admin bar that follows you into every editor, a new media editor, richer Notes and two new blocks.
Here is what is in the release and what it means for the sites we build and support.
Responsive styles, built in
You can now style how a block looks at different screen sizes from Global Styles or in individual block settings, and preview changes at different viewport sizes as you work. Block themes can define their own mobile and tablet breakpoints in theme.json, which override the defaults for responsive styles and block visibility. Button blocks also get distinct hover, focus and active styles right in the editor.
What this means for your site: Mobile and tablet layouts no longer have to depend on media query CSS that only a developer can change. For block themes we build or maintain, we set your breakpoints in theme.json to match your design, then configure responsive styles in Global Styles so editors can adjust a block for phones without breaking the layout elsewhere. The new hover, focus and active button styles also help keyboard users see where they are, and we check them against your brand colors for contrast.
A better editing experience
- The admin bar now stays with you across all editors, including the Site Editor
- A new media editor brings freeform and aspect ratio cropping, flipping, precise rotation and metadata editing into one workflow, still opened from the familiar Crop button
- Notes support rich text and @mentions, can be left on a specific piece of text, and can hold multiple conversations on the same block
- New Playlist and Tabs blocks
- The post editor is now fully iframed for all themes, so admin styles no longer leak into the editing canvas
What these changes mean for your site
Admin bar and richer Notes. An admin bar that follows you into every editor is a small change your team will feel every day. Notes with @mentions, notes on a specific piece of text and several conversations on one block make 7.1 a good point to move content review out of email entirely. We help teams set up a simple process: who mentions whom, who resolves notes and when a post is ready to publish.
New media editor. Cropping, flipping, rotating and editing image metadata now happen in one place, opened from the same Crop button, so editors spend less time in outside image tools. We show your team the new workflow and add the image details step to your publishing checklist so it does not get skipped.
Playlist and Tabs blocks. Tabs are a tidy way to organize product details, service comparisons or reference content without one long page, and Playlist gives media heavy sites a core block for a set of tracks. Where a site uses a plugin only for tabs or a player, we test the core block as a replacement on staging and move content over when it is a good fit.
Fully iframed post editor. This is the change most likely to affect custom code. Admin styles no longer leak into the editing canvas, so the editor looks more like your live site, but plugins and meta boxes that reach across the editor with JavaScript or CSS can stop working. We test every custom plugin, meta box and editor script on staging before a client site moves to 7.1, and we fix anything that relied on the old behavior.
Faster, more flexible media
Image compression, resizing and thumbnail generation now happen in the browser, using a WebAssembly build of libvips. That reduces server load and helps avoid PHP memory limits and upload timeouts. Media handling adds native support for AVIF, HEIC and HDR gain maps, opt in GIF to video conversion and more resilient uploads. The Media Library uses infinite scrolling by default, with a per user option to go back to pagination.
What this means for your site: Moving compression, resizing and thumbnail generation into the browser takes load off the server, which helps most on smaller hosting plans where large uploads used to hit PHP memory limits or time out. Native HEIC support means photos straight from an iPhone can go into the Media Library, and AVIF helps keep image files small. We test uploads, generated image sizes and the new crop workflow on staging, turn on GIF to video conversion only where it suits your content, and show anyone who prefers pagination in the Media Library where to switch it back.
For developers
- The SVG Icon API is now public, with functions such as wp_register_icon_collection() and wp_register_icon()
- The Abilities API adds a filterable execution lifecycle, custom validation and shared discovery
- A new Design System brings semantic design tokens and a ThemeProvider component for custom admin interfaces
- theme.json supports responsive styling and hover, focus, focus visible and active states
- jQuery UI is updated to 1.14.2
- Speculative loading defaults can be set with environment variables or constants
The official field guide counts more than 310 core Trac tickets in this release. Some features explored during the cycle, including real time collaboration, did not make it into 7.1.
What this means for your site: These changes matter most if your site has custom plugins, admin tools or a design system of its own. The public SVG Icon API and the new design tokens give us a cleaner, standard way to build custom admin interfaces that match the rest of WordPress, and the Abilities API lifecycle and validation make the automation and AI workflows we build easier to control. We also retest anything built on jQuery UI after the 1.14.2 update, and we set speculative loading defaults per environment so staging and production behave the way you expect.
Frequently asked questions
Will WordPress 7.1 break our meta boxes?
WordPress 7.1 keeps the post editor iframed even on sites with legacy meta boxes. Custom meta boxes and plugins that reach across the editor document with scripts or styles should be tested on staging before you update.
Do we still need custom CSS for mobile layouts?
Much less of it. Responsive styles and theme.json breakpoints handle many common cases right in the editor.
Can our site accept iPhone photos now?
WordPress 7.1 adds native support for HEIC, along with AVIF and HDR gain maps.
Planning your move to WordPress 7.1, or a new build that uses it? Our support and maintenance plans keep sites updated, tested and monitored, and our development team can modernize custom blocks, themes and plugins. Contact us to talk it through.
