WordPress 5.2 is out and here’s what you should know

Rejoice, dear WP users! Just three months after the WordPress 5.1 version was released, the team decided it’s time for a new one to join the game. WordPress 5.2 is here!

WordPress 5.2, the “Jaco”, was released and is ready for download since yesterday, May 7, 2019, and we couldn’t be more excited. This WP version has some thrilling tools and features which are supposed to help all the users identify and fix configuration issues and errors more quickly.

Here’s what you can expect from WP 5.2:

The “Jaco”, you say?

Yep.

This WP version was named after the award-winning jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius. The creators, Matt Mullenweg, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, and Gary Pendergast (and 327 volunteer contributors) decided to name the 5.2 version Jaco to honor this groundbreaking, revolutionary artist.

On stage, Jaco was a jokester who knew how to “move the crowd”. The ones that knew him, described him as a tall and strong man. We have a feeling that WordPress 5.2 is as robust, energetic and virtuosic as Jaco was.

What does WordPress 5.2 have that other versions don’t?

As we have mentioned at the beginning of the post, this WordPress version is all about preventing issues and finding the information about your website the moment you need it. No matter if you are a developer who’s maintaining a client’s site or a first time WordPress user, we are sure you are going to fall in love with the newest features.

Here are those features:

Your site is going to be healthier

The feature we are talking about is the Site Health one, which was first introduced in the WP 5.1 version. This feature adds two new pages which will help you debug common configuration issues. In addition to this, you will be able to check just how well your website is doing.

How can you check your site’s health? Well, all you need to do is choose the Tools section in your Dashboard and then select the Site Health option. This option allows you to see the percentage score grade of your website, that is, many tests your site passes.

Although this feature may seem like the perfect parameter, the truth is that developers are not fully convinced that there should be such grading system. Why? Because users, that is, clients, usually get obsessed with having a flawless scoring, the unreachable 100%.

You won’t have to deal with harmful plugins and themes

Thank PHP Error Protection feature for allowing you to live such a careless life.

No joke, the 5.2 WP version is all about minimizing the time you or your developer friend spent fixing errors. Thanks to the PHP Error Protection feature, you’ll be able to quickly enter a recovery mode, if God forbid, you encounter the white screen of death. Additionally, your site will pause all the plugins or themes that caused the error.

You will enjoy using new emojis and look at New dashicons

It’s always fun to play with some new emojis, and the WP team is fully aware of that. That is why they decided to include Twemoji 12.0.1 in WordPress 5.2 which counts over 230 new emojis. Our favorite? Probably the smirking face emoji.

When it comes to dashicons (the icons that are placed in your admin Dashboard), all you need to remember is that there are 13 new ones. Yay to the new icon design!

You’ll access your website in the blink of an eye

If you are using some assistive technologies or prefer to navigate through your website using the keyboard, you won’t have any issues accessing the admin panel.

You won’t have to check for the plugin compatibility

If you have been using WordPress for a more extended period than you know that, once in a while, you need to check whether your site’s PHP version is compatible with plugins you installed. Well, starting from the Jaco version, you won’t have to do it yourself. If your site doesn’t have the version of the PHP that is required for a plugin installation, your website will not allow you to activate the plugin.

Are there any features built for developers?

Of course there are. Here are some features that will help the developers:

• PHP Version Bump feature, which allows developers to use the namespaces, anonymous functions, and more without care on their mind.
• Privacy Updates, which will ease the process of Privacy Policy page customization. Developers can quickly add a new theme page template, two CSS classes and a conditional function.
• The “wp_body_open” hook, which allows developers to add tags directly inside the body of a page. For example, you will be able to add the <script> tag.
• Building JavaScript feature, which eliminates developers’ need to set up tools to write JavaScript code.

How can you switch to/download WordPress 5.2?

If you want to update your website automatically, all you need to do is choose the Updates icon in your Dashboard and click on the Update Now button. Keep in mind that, while your website is being updated, it will be in maintenance mode. Once your updates are complete, your site will return to normal, and you’ll see the “Welcome to WordPress 5.2” screen. It’s that quick and effortless.

Keep in mind that, once you have updated WordPress, you’ll also need to update the database. You can do so by clicking on the Update WordPress Database, and you are all done.

If you are a first-time user, you can download the 5.2 version from the official WordPress.org site.

When can you expect the WP 5.3 version?

Who knows! The WordPress team didn’t mention anything about the 5.3 version, and there is not a single buzz on the street. But, knowing how committed and hard-working the team is, it is probably in the works.

At the moment, we must say we are happy with the release of WordPress 5.2. We are especially excited to use the improved Site Health feature, as it means that you won’t have as many issues using your WordPress theme and that you will be able to find the plugin or theme issues quicker.

Now that you know what WordPress 5.2 has to offer, what do you think of it? We would love to read your thoughts so be sure to leave them in the comment section, down below.