--- title: What’s new for developers? (August 2026) | daily.dev description: WordPress 7.1 is scheduled to release on August 19, with RC1 and RC2 already shipped and the Field Guide published. Key developer-facing changes include:... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/what-s-new-for-developers-august-2026--z2keywyiy twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: What’s new for developers? (August 2026) | daily.dev og:description: WordPress 7.1 is scheduled to release on August 19, with RC1 and RC2 already shipped and the Field Guide published. Key developer-facing changes include:... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/what-s-new-for-developers-august-2026--z2keywyiy og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/Z2kEYwYiy.png og:image:alt: What’s new for developers? (August 2026) og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # What’s new for developers? (August 2026) **[WordPress Developer](https://daily.dev/sources/wordpressdev)** · 18 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary WordPress 7.1 is scheduled to release on August 19, with RC1 and RC2 already shipped and the Field Guide published. Key developer-facing changes include: responsive block styles with configurable breakpoints via theme.json (@mobile/@tablet keys), pseudo-state styling (:hover, :focus, :active) for Button and Navigation Link blocks, a public SVG Icon API with wp_register_icon_collection() and wp_get_icon(), and the post editor becoming always-iframed regardless of theme type. The Abilities API gains a full execution lifecycle, custom validation, and discovery pipeline. Design System theming adds CSS custom properties and a ThemeProvider component for admin UI branding. The __next40pxDefaultSize prop is now a no-op (form controls render at 40px unconditionally). React 19 is punted again — WordPress 7.1 stays on React 18.3. WordPress Playground received a new multi-site interface and a programmatic Site Manager API. Two security releases (7.0.2 and 7.0.3) also shipped this cycle. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What breaks when the __next40pxDefaultSize prop is removed in WordPress 7.1? Passing __next40pxDefaultSize={false} no longer opts back into the smaller 36px control size in WordPress 7.1; form controls now render at 40px unconditionally with no replacement prop. The prop was introduced in 6.7 and soft-deprecated in 6.8. Also remove size="__unstable-large" if used only to get the taller control, and note size is deprecated on BorderBoxControl, BorderControl, FontSizePicker, and ToggleGroupControl. _Track breaking prop changes like this one before upgrading plugins, with daily.dev surfacing WordPress release coverage._ ### How do I make the WordPress post list table row header accessible in WordPress 7.1 after the markup change? In WordPress 7.1 the primary th scope="row" in post list tables moved from the checkbox column to the title column, per changeset 62838. The checkbox cell is now a td, the title cell is a th carrying an aria-label with the post title, and collapsed responsive cells use flex layout. Any CSS or JavaScript selecting th.check-column or expecting row actions inside a td needs updating, since this markup had been stable since 2010. _Developers auditing plugin compatibility ahead of a WordPress upgrade can follow changes like this via daily.dev._ ### How do I add responsive tablet and mobile styles to a WordPress block theme using theme.json? WordPress 7.1 lets you nest styles under @mobile and @tablet keys inside theme.json's styles.blocks section, applied per block type or on individual instances. Default breakpoints are 480px for mobile and 782px for tablet, configurable via a new top-level settings.viewport property using non-negative px, em, or rem values; there is no @desktop key since the default style already serves as the desktop style. Blocks using standard block supports (typography, color, spacing, layout) get this automatically. _Theme developers adopting new responsive APIs can keep up with WordPress core changes through daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [What’s new for developers \(July 2026\)](https://daily.dev/posts/what-s-new-for-developers-july-2026--1fusc413s) · WordPress Developer · 10 upvotes · 0 comments - [What’s new for developers? \(March 2026\)](https://daily.dev/posts/what-s-new-for-developers-march-2026--4onf7s9j3) · WordPress Developer · 21 upvotes · 0 comments - [WordPress 7.1.1 RC1 is now available](https://daily.dev/posts/wordpress-7-1-1-rc1-is-now-available-5wmooypkv) · Make WordPress Core · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#php](https://daily.dev/tags/php), [#wordpress](https://daily.dev/tags/wordpress) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/what-s-new-for-developers-august-2026--z2keywyiy) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"What’s new for developers? 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