WordPress 6.8 is here – new features & improvements

WordPress version 6.8, the first major update of 2025, is here. We’ve picked out three things that are a little extra worth noting.

WordPress 6.8 är här – utvalda nyheter & förbättringar
  1. Bcrypt hashing for passwords
  2. Speculative Loading
  3. Accessibility improvements

WordPress 6.8 – new features and improvements

This version, WordPress 6.8, is the first major update for this year.

It contains fewer new features and focuses on mostly improvements and bug fixes, according to their own release notes. That said, it’s certainly not empty on new features.

And we’re interested in three parts in particular: two new features related to security and performance, and one area related to accessibility.

If you’re curious about all the updates, you might want to start with the WordPress 6.8 Field Guide. In it, you can see what WordPress themselves consider to be the most important developer features, as well as click through to specific improvements and bug fixes.

Security: Bcrypt hashing for passwords

We’d like to start by highlighting a new feature that has to do with the ever-important security aspect.

With WordPress 6.8, support for bcrypt now comes as an alternative for the older portable PHPass system. There are several benefits:

  • It’s designed specifically for passwords, unlike general hash functions like MD5 or SHA1.
  • Intentionally slow to run – and that’s a good thing! It makes it much harder for attackers to brute-force passwords.
  • You can adjust how “expensive” the hash should be (e.g. cost 10, 12, etc.), which means it can scale over time.

Passwords hashed with old methods (PHPass) are automatically converted to bcrypt the next time the user logs in.

Performance: Speculative Loading

Another feature that’s new to WP relates to performance.

WordPress 6.8 introduces support for Speculative Loading, a technique that improves site performance by predicting what resources the user is likely to need next. This can be, for example, subpages, which are loaded in advance. It makes them load much faster!

The feature is based on the Speculation Rules API browser standard. It makes it possible to define rules for which links to preload based on user behavior. WordPress users can now use this to automatically generate such rules for internal links. This improves the user experience without requiring code changes from developers.

Accessibility improvements

A major and important topic that is increasingly prioritized when it comes to digitalization is accessibility. This is of course a positive thing, especially given the new directives and laws that have come (and will come) into force in recent years. One such example is the European Accessibility Act.

And in WordPress 6.8, there will be a number of improvements, about 100 to be exact, related to the area of accessibility:

  • Improved labels and terminology for blocks like Query Loop, Post URL, and Navigation, making them more intuitive for all users.
  • Focus fixes that prevent loss of focus in the Site Logo block and improve keyboard navigation for the Site Icon component.
  • Improved ARIA attributes and tooltips in blocks such as Image, Video and Navigation, improving compatibility with screen readers.
  • Alt text and fallback options for selected images in the editor side panel, ensuring better accessibility for screen readers.
  • Improved labels for link previews, making them more accessible and informative.

Sounds good? You can update your site now. It provides better functionality, improves SEO and, most importantly, it makes your more secure. Here we list several reasons why you should always update your WordPress to the latest version.

Managed WordPress – we take care of optimizing your WordPress

If you don’t want to think about these things and want someone else to update your WordPress (and optimize performance), maybe Managed WordPress is for you? Get leading performance, security and access to our dedicated WordPress support.

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