WordPress 7.0 “Armstrong” landed on May 20, 2026 — and what a release it is. Named after the legendary jazz musician Louis Armstrong, this is widely considered the most significant WordPress release since Gutenberg shipped back in 2018. For the WordPress community, it marks the official start of Gutenberg Phase 3. For rtCamp, it marks something else we’re equally proud of: our 35th consecutive release with core contributions.
What’s New in WordPress 7.0
The headline feature is native AI infrastructure baked right into core. WordPress 7.0 ships a provider-agnostic AI integration layer — no single vendor is locked in. Admins get a unified Settings → Connectors screen to manage AI providers like OpenAI, Google AI, and Anthropic. Plugins and themes can tap into AI capabilities through a standardized interface, which means the whole ecosystem builds on a stable, governed foundation rather than fragmented plugin-level hacks.
Beyond AI, the admin dashboard gets its first serious redesign in over a decade, powered by DataViews — a modernized content management interface that makes working with posts, pages, and media noticeably faster. Editorial teams also get improved block-level notes, responsive block visibility controls, and browser-side media processing. One thing that didn’t ship: real-time collaboration. It was removed just before launch due to a deep architectural issue and is now on track for WordPress 7.1 in August 2026.
35 Releases
rtCamp has contributed to 35 consecutive WordPress core releases — every single one since version 3.6.
60 rtCampers
60 rtCampers are credited as contributors in WordPress 7.0 “Armstrong”.
What rtCampers Worked On
One of the standout contributions from rtCamp in this cycle came from David Levine, who was part of the Core AI Team. His work touched the Connectors API, the wp_supports_ai() function, and the Abilities API — the building blocks that make WordPress 7.0’s AI infrastructure actually work. These aren’t flashy UI features; they’re the plumbing that the entire ecosystem will build on for years to come.
Beyond AI, rtCampers contributed across Gutenberg, performance, QA testing, and core tickets — the kind of broad, unglamorous, essential work that keeps WordPress reliable for the 43% of the web that runs on it.
Looking Ahead
Congratulations to every rtCamper who shipped something — big or small — in this release. And congrats to the wider WordPress community: 7.0 is a genuinely exciting milestone. Real-time collaboration is coming in WordPress 7.1 (August 2026), and we’ll be there for that one too. Streak’s not stopping anytime soon.
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