WordPress 7.0 is officially on the horizon, and it’s bringing some heavy architectural shifts that we need to talk about. We need to stay on top of the latest WordPress Core Updates because the team just confirmed they are dropping support for PHP 7.2 and 7.3. On paper, it’s just a version bump; in reality, if you’re managing legacy infrastructure for clients, it’s a ticking clock.
The Impact of WordPress Core Updates on Legacy Infrastructure
Specifically, the move to drop PHP 7.2 and 7.3 in WordPress 7.0 (scheduled for April 2026) raises the minimum supported version to 7.4.0. I’ve seen this play out before. I remember the pain when we finally dropped PHP 5.2—half the web felt like it was held together by duct tape and old transients. Consequently, if you have sites still running on these older versions, your upgrade path just became a priority.
Furthermore, keeping your environment updated isn’t just about security; it’s about performance. Modern PHP engines handle race conditions and memory allocation far better than the 7.2 branch ever did. For a deeper dive into how versioning impacts your site, check out my previous thoughts on handling WordPress core update regressions and planning for 7.0.
Maintenance and Leadership: What’s Next
While we look toward 7.0, the immediate focus is the WordPress 6.9.1 maintenance release, planned for February 3, 2026. This isn’t a feature drop; it’s a stability fix. Therefore, you should be testing this in your staging environments now. You can view the full release schedule announcement on the official Make blog.
Beyond the code, the community is looking for its next set of leaders. Nominations for Core Team Representatives for 2026 are now open. These are the people who will actually decide the direction of these WordPress Core Updates. If you’ve ever complained about a hook being deprecated or a filter not working as expected, now is the time to get involved. I’ve already detailed why nominations for 2026 core reps are a critical part of the ecosystem.
Technical Check: Are You Ready for WP 7.0?
Don’t wait for the site to break to check your environment. You can use a simple helper function or a WP-CLI command to audit your servers. Here is a basic check you can drop into a utility plugin to alert your clients if they are running on hardware that won’t survive the next major update.
<?php
/**
* Simple check for WordPress 7.0 PHP compatibility.
*/
function bbioon_check_php_compatibility() {
$min_php = '7.4.0';
if ( version_compare( PHP_VERSION, $min_php, '<' ) ) {
if ( is_admin() && current_user_can( 'manage_options' ) ) {
add_action( 'admin_notices', function() use ( $min_php ) {
echo '<div class="notice notice-error"><p>';
printf(
esc_html__( 'Critical: Your PHP version (%s) is below the upcoming WordPress 7.0 requirement (%s). Update soon.', 'bbioon' ),
PHP_VERSION,
$min_php
);
echo '</p></div>';
});
}
}
}
add_action( 'init', 'bbioon_check_php_compatibility' );Look, if this WordPress Core Updates stuff is eating up your dev hours, let me handle it. I’ve been wrestling with WordPress since the 4.x days.
The Pragmatic Takeaway
The upcoming Dev Chat on January 21, 2026, at 15:00 UTC on Slack is where the granular details of the PHP support drop will be hashed out. Don’t be the developer who gets surprised by a white screen of death in April. Audit your sites, update your stacks, and stay focused on stability over shiny features. Legacy code is a bottleneck, but with proper planning, it doesn’t have to be a disaster.
