{"id":69712,"date":"2022-11-02T12:32:21","date_gmt":"2022-11-02T16:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inmotionhosting.com\/blog\/?p=69712"},"modified":"2026-02-27T13:45:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T18:45:31","slug":"wordpress-6-1-improvements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inmotionhosting.com\/blog\/wordpress-6-1-improvements\/","title":{"rendered":"WordPress 6.1 Improvements"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"WordPress<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

WordPress 6.1 was released on November 1st, 2022, and this update contains a fair amount of new things for the CMS. Here is what you need to know coming to WordPress and what to look forwards to in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WordPress 6.1 Improvements<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, in May, WordPress released version 6.0<\/a> with major changes to the way users interact with the block editor and upgrades to styling tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Overview
Image Source: wordpress.org\/news <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

WordPress 6.1 \u201cMisha\u201d, continues to work with the changes brought by its predecessor and creates an enhanced experience for users. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMisha\u201d further refines the site-building experience. Inside WordPress 6.1 you\u2019ll interact with enhancements that continue to make site creation more intuitive while pushing your creative boundaries further than ever. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this focus on writing and creativity improvements, \u201cMisha\u201d brings WordPress users a strong foundation for their design needs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Updates for Designers and Writers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Although there will be a further breakdown on Gutenberg 14.4 in this article, the general updates to WordPress\u2019 design and layout are worthy of mention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the introduction of their new Twenty-Twenty-Three theme<\/a> to new templates for users to customize their page layout. You can now edit or replace your header, footer, and other pieces of information from within your dashboard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other design updates include upgrades to the design control on the Layout panel. Paired with Gutenberg updates to images, this will make modifying your page a lot easier with the default editor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Layout
Image Source: wordpress.org\/news<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

WordPress 6.1 also brings a cleaner look to its settings panel, with a minimalist approach to menus, block settings, and publishing options. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

WordPress Performance Updates<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Addressing user concerns, WordPress \u201cMisha\u201d brings a lot of improvements to WordPress\u2019 performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

WP_Query and REST API<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Marked as the two most important updates<\/a> to the WordPress performance in version 6.1 WP_Query and Rest API bring improvements to database queries, boosting sites\u2019 speeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With caching updates in the WP_Query class, database queries that are requested more than once will be loaded from cache. This ensures that your database is not run multiple times resulting in faster speeds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This change will be enabled by default starting with 6.1, and while it is possible to opt out of this disabling parameter, developers strongly recommend keeping caching enabled<\/a> and instead invalidate caching with the clean_post_cache function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, improvements to REST API<\/a> also decrease database queries. Primarily removing the automatic call of prepare_links if added to the _fields parameter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 6.1 <\/em>prepare_links<\/em> are only called if requested in the response, when links are requested in fields or the <\/em>_embedded<\/em> parameter is passed. As part of this work, the taxonomy and post type controllers have now been updated to implement said prepare_links method to bring them in line with other REST API controllers.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means your database will not be called or run if prepare_links is not needed, saving you the time it would have taken to run an empty response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The improvements to REST API also included updates to the posts, user, and comments controller, priming each of these by caching the needed post in a single query to optimize time.<\/p>\n\n\n

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