Hot off the press! This week WordPress finally introduced the first instalment of WordPress 4.4! Although the latest update is in its earliest beta testing stage, the release is now available for web developers and WordPress user enthusiasts to play around with before its scheduled release date on December 8th 2015.

Although some of these changes may not necessarily mean much to you, as a Cheshire web development agency, we feel it is our duty to highlight some of the upcoming features that will not only improve your WordPress experience as both a user, but as an editor if you currently have your very own WordPress website with us…

So let’s not waste any more time and dive in and see what new features are here…

Twenty Sixteen Theme

Each year, WordPress release a completely free default theme for every WordPress user to keep and have a play around with – If you are not sure on what a WordPress theme is, think of it as a free website layout template.

The Twenty Sixteen Theme has been designed with what only can be described as an improved throwback on the traditional blogging format by merging the simplicity with the desire of meeting that mobile-first approach. As you are probably aware of now, search engines favour any website that is mobile responsive…

As you can see from the screenshot provided, the Twenty Sixteen Theme offers multiple menu positions along with optional side bar and social media menus which almost has that Wikipedia look about it. Luckily, you now have the ability to have custom colour, background and header options to make as many changes as you wish. For first time features, the theme introduces the ability to add intro’s to post using custom except along with a responsive overflow to display lager images. Although some of these changes may not necessarily mean much to you, inside our blog we will highlight some of the features which will improve your WordPress experience.

Responsive Images

Arguably the biggest attribute inside the WordPress 4.4 feature is the delivery of responsive images. The idea behind the development here is so WordPress websites automatically deliver more appropriate image sizes to users depending screen size, resolution and other variables.

With more searches now made from mobile devices than PC’s for the first time this year, along with factoring in various tablet and network devices, screen density and display size options continue to increase… Along with accounting for the speeds of page load times and network connections, WordPress felt like this was a huge opportunity to improve the WordPress experience “We have the opportunity to make a huge impact on the ~25% of the web that runs on WordPress by adding responsive image support out of the box so sites can serve appropriate sizes images to all users.”

From WordPress developers through to small business owners who post the occasional blog, all can take great confidence in adding images to blog posts through to theme options.

Embed More Content

For the past 6 years, WordPress users have been able to embed all sorts of content such as YouTube videos, tweets, facebook posts and much more resources thanks to a small feature called oEmbed.

Well inside the brand new WordPress 4.4 update, developers have been hard at work and have come up with a new and improved solution so users who wish to share your content can now share either / both the preview or the actual post itself along with sharing WordPress posts on well… other WordPress posts by simply pasting the post URL.

The Verdict

From a Cheshire web design agency’s perspective, we are excited to see how the beta testing works out in the coming weeks before it’s official roll out date. From the features listed, although they may not sound like much, they will really have a benefit on both the web developer and the user.