WordPress 5.8 has been released! Along with more editor improvements, this release introduces an entirely new widget interface with the ability to use blocks as widgets, new photo filters, the new Blog Pattern Directory, and drops support for Internet Explorer 11 (which Microsoft essentially replaced with their Edge browser roughly 5 years ago). For specifics, check out the changelog.

530 volunteers contributed to this release, and at the time of writing this, WordPress 5.8 has been out for just a bit over a day, and has already been downloaded 7,810,277 times!

All users can safely update from Dashboard -> Updates or download and update manually, though you should probably backup first just in case, unless you’re already using Jetpack Backup, which you really should be.

If you run into any problems, stop by the known issues first, and if it’s not covered there, please let us know in the support forums!