WordPress 4.4, nicknamed “Clifford” after the famous Jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown, is now available for download. This latest version of WordPress comes with several new features, such as support for responsive images, better embeds, a new default theme, and various other improvements.
WordPress 4.4 now supports srcset, which allows it to detect and display the ideal image size on the basis of the user’s screen resolution. As such, responsive images are now implemented in WordPress 4.4 with no further tweaking or configuration required.
Plus, you can also embed content from other WordPress sites directly on-page, much like you’d embed a tweet or a YouTube video. Learn more about this feature here.
As always, this major release of WordPress comes with a new default theme of its own — Twenty Sixteen. It is a minimal and clean theme, primarily meant for bloggers, with a right sidebar by default.
However, the biggest and most noteworthy change that WordPress 4.4 brings to the table is the fact that it comes bundled with the first half of the REST API. If you are a plugin or theme author, you can start implementing REST API immediately, and read more about the implementation here.
WordPress 4.4 comes with several other new features as well, such as:
- WordPress Multisite has a new class called WP_Network, that makes it easier to use it across multiple networks.
- The WP_Comments component has been rebuilt. Now, the comment field will display first, followed by name, email and website. Earlier, users were shown the name, email and website fields before the comment field.
- The headings hierarchy has been restored for admin screens.
- Unattached media attachments can now have pretty permalinks.
- While it was previously assumed that WordPress 4.4 will deprecate WP_Title, it is no longer the case and WP_Title is still the recommended method of inserting title tags in WordPress themes.
To learn more about WordPress 4.4, check out this video:
WordPress 4.4 is the last major release of this year, and it brings several new features to the table. Have you updated your websites yet? Be sure to share your feedback in the comments below.