AI continues to be a recurring theme — from smarter form calculations in WPForms to StoreAgent’s automated WooCommerce helpers.

There’s also a wave of quality-of-life improvements worth mentioning. Uncanny Automator now integrates with Discord and RSS, AIOSEO added new crawl controls, and WP Simple Pay has made Stripe compliance easier for users.

Whether you’re a developer, site owner, or just like keeping up with the latest tools, there’s plenty to catch up on this month.

WPForms Adds AI-Powered Calculations for Smarter Forms 🪄

Creating complex calculation forms just got a whole lot easier. WPForms now includes a powerful AI Calculations feature that builds custom formulas for you.

You can chat with the WPForms AI Assistant to create dynamic, real-time formulas in seconds. Just describe what you want to calculate in simple terms — no syntax or logic-building needed.

It works great for eCommerce pricing, event quotes, tuition fees, and more. Simply type in your request, and the AI does the rest.

This new feature builds upon WPForms’ existing AI tools. You can generate entire forms with a single prompt, fill in field choices automatically, and even translate forms into other languages in seconds.

WordPress 6.8 Release Candidate Now Available. Final Release Expected April 15, 2025 🎉

The first Release Candidate (RC1) for WordPress 6.8 is now available for testing. This marks a significant step toward the final release, which is scheduled for April 15, 2025.

This update brings a lot of enhancements aimed at improving site performance, security, and user experience.

Key features in WordPress 6.8 include:

• Speculative Loading: This feature predicts and preloads resources that users are likely to access next. This results in faster page load times and a smoother browsing experience.
• Enhanced Password Security with bcrypt: WordPress 6.8 transitions to bcrypt for password hashing. This provides improved security against brute-force attacks and aligns with modern security standards.
• Block Editor Improvements: Users will benefit from better block interactions, more style controls, and an improved editing experience. These features will make content creation more intuitive and flexible within the block editor.

Developers and testers are encouraged to explore the Release Candidate now. This will allow you to get familiar with the new features and ensure compatibility with themes and plugins ahead of the final release.

For a comprehensive overview of what’s coming in WordPress 6.8, including detailed features and screenshots, you can read about What’s Coming in WordPress 6.8: Features and Screenshots.

StoreAgent Launches AI Assistants for WooCommerce Stores 🤖

Josh Kohlbach, a longtime name in the WordPress and WooCommerce space, has launched StoreAgent — a set of AI-powered tools designed to save store owners time and effort.

Instead of just chatting with AI, StoreAgent acts like a smart co-worker that can handle real tasks for your online store.

These AI agents can write product descriptions, create short summaries, suggest tags, and even monitor your store’s content. They can also summarize reviews and help with customer Q&As, all from inside your WooCommerce dashboard.

Josh says the goal was to go beyond ChatGPT-style chatboxes and build something that feels more like an actual assistant.

StoreAgent is the first step in that direction—a collection of AI agents that do the boring work, help you stay creative, and suggest ways to improve your product pages.

StoreAgent works on a pay-as-you-go credit system, and new users get 500 credits for free. A Shopify version and other platform extensions are also in the works.

PushEngage Adds AI Campaigns and WooCommerce Order Notifications 🔔

PushEngage just made it easier to boost customer engagement and save time. They’ve added two big features to their push notification plugin: AI-powered message generation and automated WooCommerce order notifications.

The new AI tool helps you write high-converting push messages in seconds. Just enter your goal, and the system generates optimized text that’s ready to send.

It’s ideal for marketers who want results without spending hours on copywriting. ✍️

The WooCommerce update is even more exciting for store owners. You can now send push alerts for order events like purchases, processing updates, and delivery notifications.

This helps keep customers in the loop, reduces support tickets, and even alerts your team internally.

You can also recover abandoned carts or request reviews automatically with follow-up campaigns. Overall, these new features are designed for store owners who want more repeat traffic and fewer missed sales.

Uncanny Automator Adds RSS and Discord Integrations ⚙️

Uncanny Automator, the most powerful WordPress automation plugin, has added two new integrations. It now allows users to automate actions using RSS feeds and send automated messages straight to Discord channels.

The new RSS integration lets you trigger actions when a feed updates or create a feed from actions on your site. For example, you could automatically post new blog content to Slack, Discord, or a newsletter tool — all without touching a line of code.

On the other hand, the Discord integration is great for online communities. You can set it to send channel messages when users complete a course, submit a form, or place an order.

It’s perfect for membership sites, LMS platforms, or WooCommerce stores that want to keep their audience informed in real time.

Plus, these new features work seamlessly with Automator’s existing integrations. That means you can connect RSS and Discord with tools like LearnDash, WPForms, BuddyBoss, WooCommerce, and more.

AIOSEO Adds Advanced Crawl Controls for Better SEO 🚀

All in One SEO, the popular WordPress SEO toolkit, just got a major update. This new release brings powerful new tools that help you clean up crawl data, block unwanted bots, and improve your site’s performance.

One standout feature is the upgraded Crawl Cleanup. It lets you limit the length of internal search URLs. You can also remove emojis and spam patterns from search terms. Plus, it can redirect pretty search URLs to raw formats.

All of this helps prevent duplicate content and wasted crawl budgets.

You can now also stop search engines from crawling internal search pages entirely. AIOSEO automatically adds disallow rules to your robots.txt file for common search query patterns like ?s= and /search/.

AI Crawlers are on the rise, and all this crawling could affect website performance. AIOSEO’s new bot-blocking feature lets you block known bad bots or AI crawlers that may use your content for training without permission. These settings are built directly into the plugin’s robots.txt editor for easy access.

AIOSEO also updated its Query Arg Monitor to improve how UTM parameters are handled. Now, UTM links automatically redirect using # fragments instead of ?. This setup keeps analytics intact while avoiding duplicate URLs in search results.

WP Simple Pay Adds Stripe Compliance Alerts and Smarter Pricing Options 💳

WP Simple Pay just rolled out new features to help WordPress users manage Stripe payments more confidently.

The latest update includes Stripe alerts within the WordPress dashboard, flexible pricing rules, and payment limits to keep your checkout forms clean and compliant.

The standout feature is the in-plugin Stripe account notifications. Instead of checking your Stripe dashboard every day, you’ll now see important alerts directly inside WordPress. These include payment verification issues, compliance reminders, and other account requirements — all in real time.

They’ve also introduced required price options, letting you add mandatory fees or add-ons to any payment form.

This is perfect for things like support fees, booking add-ons, or one-time setup charges. You can build more transparent and flexible pricing models without writing custom code.

And if you’re worried about fraud or regulatory limits, there’s a new feature for setting custom amount maximums. You can cap donation sizes, limit gift card values, or prevent accidental overpayments — all directly from the visual payment form builder.

MonsterInsights Adds Cart Abandonment Reports to Help You Recover Lost Sales 📈

MonsterInsights, the #1 Google Analytics plugin for WordPress, has introduced new Cart Abandonment reports that give store owners more visibility into what’s being left behind.

Instead of guessing which products are getting dropped at checkout, you can now see exactly what’s being abandoned — and when.

The new reports are split into two key sections. The Products report shows which items are being abandoned, how often, and how much revenue is potentially being lost.

On the other hand, the Daily report helps you spot trends by showing peak abandonment times and revenue impact by day.

It’s a helpful tool for store owners, marketers, and product managers who want to fine-tune their strategy and recover missed sales. The insights can guide inventory planning, promotional timing, and even design changes at checkout.

If you’re using MonsterInsights Pro, just update to the latest version and head to eCommerce » Cart Abandonment in your WordPress dashboard to start exploring your reports.

In Other News 🗞️

• WPConsent, a powerful privacy compliance plugin for WordPress, now supports Google Consent Mode V2. It can now automatically adjust Google tags based on user consent to improve privacy compliance. The update also introduces improved consent log management by allowing easy export of records in CSV format.
• The popular WordPress page builder plugin, SeedProd, has added 15 new industry-specific themes. They have also upgraded their Image Carousel block with support for custom headers, subheadings, and clickable buttons.
• WooCommerce is preparing Product Editor v3 to align with WordPress Data Views and Forms. They also advise developers to pause beta work for now.

• The popular WordPress backup and migration plugin, Duplicator, has introduced new features to streamline backup management. These include automatic backup log cleanups and one-click deletion options.

• UpdraftPlus, a leading WordPress plugin developer, have expanded their portfolio by acquiring Burst Statistics, a privacy-friendly analytics plugin. This acquisition follows UpdraftPlus’s commitment to improving website management tools while prioritizing user privacy.

OptinMonster – Convert Visitors into Subscribers & Customers

OptinMonster helps you grow your email list and boost conversions with high-converting popups and campaigns. Use smart targeting and a drag & drop builder to show the right message to the right person at the right time — no coding needed.

Get OptinMonster

• Hostinger, the popular WordPress hosting company, has launched Horizons. This AI-powered web app builder enables users to create custom web applications without coding knowledge.
• HeroThemes has launched the Heroic KB Chrome Extension, which allows users to access their knowledge base directly from the browser toolbar. This tool is designed to enhance productivity by allowing customer support teams to quickly search and view knowledge base articles without switching tabs.
• The popular WordPress code snippets plugin, WPCode, has introduced a Snippet Shortcode Finder. It allows users to locate where specific shortcodes are used across their WordPress site. Additionally, the update improves the WooCommerce integration by allowing users to run code snippets based on cart contents.

• Formidable Forms has introduced a GDPR Compliance field, which makes it easier to get explicit user consent in WordPress forms. This feature makes sure that data collection aligns with privacy regulations.
• Envira Gallery has added a Search Addon and a Vertical Focus Layout to improve image browsing and presentation. The search feature helps users find photos quickly using tags or descriptions. Meanwhile, the new layout highlights a featured image alongside a scrollable thumbnail strip for a more immersive gallery experience.

WPBeginner Maintenance Services 🛠️

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• Wholesale Suite has introduced a new interface for its WooCommerce Invoice System, which allows store owners to manage invoices directly within the Payments tab. This update streamlines the invoicing process by grouping invoice tracking, payment status monitoring, and PDF invoice downloads in a single, user-friendly location.
• Smash Balloon has introduced integrations with WPForms and Formidable Forms, which allow users to collect and display customer reviews directly on their WordPress sites. This feature lets users make custom review submission forms and provides greater control over user-generated content.
• WP Mail SMTP has introduced push notifications that alert users immediately on their devices when emails fail to send. This feature makes sure that critical alerts are not missed.
• WPForms has introduced File Upload Restrictions, which lets users control access to files uploaded via forms. This feature allows for restrictions based on WordPress user roles, individual users, or password protection.

New Plugins

• WPConsent – A lightweight yet powerful WordPress plugin for managing user consent and complying with privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA. It supports multiple consent types and integrates with popular cookie plugins.
• Duplicate Post by AIOSEO 🔥 – Finally, a powerful Duplicate Post plugin for WordPress that allows you to easily duplicate posts and pages with a single click. It also features scheduled revisions for seamless content updates without affecting the live version.
• ClassifAI – A free plugin that uses AI to automate tasks like content tagging, image labeling, and more. It integrates with ElasticPress, WordPress core features, and many popular plugins.
• Remove Empty Shortcodes – A simple plugin that automatically strips out empty shortcodes from post content to keep things clean and error-free without making changes to the database.

That’s a wrap for this month’s WPBeginner Spotlight! We hope you enjoyed catching up on the latest news and updates from the WordPress ecosystem.

Got a product launch, feature update, or cool project you think we should cover? Send us a message, and we might feature it in our next edition.

We’ll see you again next month with another round of WordPress news. Thanks for reading and being part of the WPBeginner family!

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post WPBeginner Spotlight 10: WordPress 6.8 Preview, New AI Tools, and Plugin News first appeared on WPBeginner.

For example, this upcoming release comes with a major security update, including new password hashing using bcrypt. In terms of performance, speculative loading will significantly improve page load times.

There are also important enhancements for major parts of the block editor to improve the site editing experience for all users.

Ready to learn more? Keep reading as we explore these changes and show you how WordPress 6.8 will improve the WordPress experience.

Here’s a quick overview of the changes coming in WordPress 6.8:

Speculative Loading for Improved Performance

Have you ever noticed how some websites load pages almost instantly? That’s often due to a technique called speculative loading.

In WordPress 6.8, this feature will be built right in, making sites feel faster.

So, what is speculative loading?

Imagine you’re reading a blog post and see a link that you might click next. WordPress anticipates this and starts loading that linked page in the background. Then, when you click, the page appears quickly, like magic 🪄.

This is achieved using the Speculation Rules API. It allows WordPress to set rules for which links to load ahead of time. For example, if you hover over a link, then WordPress takes that as a hint and begins preloading the page.

For developers, there are options to customize this behavior. You can adjust which links get preloaded and how early the process starts.

Style Book Accessibility in Classic Themes 🎨

We love how designing in WordPress has become more intuitive with the introduction of the Style Book. Initially available for block themes, WordPress 6.8 will extend this feature to classic themes as well (themes that don’t support the full site editor).

The Style Book offers a comprehensive overview of your site’s design elements, including colors, typography, and block styles. It’s like having a style guide built directly into your WordPress dashboard.

For classic themes that support it, you will be able to find the Style Book by going to Appearance » Design » Styles. This centralized location makes it easier to manage and preview design changes.

Additionally, site patterns will be relocated to Appearance » Design » Patterns. This brings all design-related settings into one place and makes the customization process much easier.

The Style Book enhances the editing experience by providing a clear and organized layout of your site’s design components. It allows you to see how different elements come together, making it easier to maintain a cohesive look and feel.

Enhanced Design and Editing Tools 🖌️

WordPress 6.8 will bring several updates that make designing and editing easier in WordPress. From better global styling options to improved block controls, these changes will help users build and manage content more efficiently.

Global Styles Panel in Site Editor Sidebar

The Styles panel in the full site editor will now offer more control over global design settings. Users can adjust typography, colors, and layouts in one central place, making site-wide changes simpler.

Set Image Blocks as Featured Images

WordPress 6.8 will let you set any image block as the featured image with just one click. This removes extra steps and makes featured images easier to manage.

ℹ️Note: Deleting the image block you used for the featured image will not remove or change the featured image.

Section Styles Selector in Toolbar

A new toolbar option will let users quickly switch between different section styles in zoom-out mode.

This makes it easier to experiment with layouts without digging through menus.

Success Notices for Image Editing with Undo Link

WordPress already comes with some basic image editing features like cropping, rotating, and more.

After editing an image, WordPress will now show a success message with an Undo button. This helps users quickly revert changes if needed.

Introducing the Query Total Block

This new block will let users display the total number of posts in a query loop.

It’s helpful for showing how many articles match a category or search.

Easily Set a Page as the Posts Page

Previously, you were only able to set a page as the homepage in the site editor.

Now, a new option in the page list view will let users assign any page as their blog posts page. This makes site setup faster and more flexible.

Refinements to the Query Loop Block ♾️

The Query Loop block is a powerful tool for dynamically displaying posts. In WordPress 6.8, it will receive a small but important improvement that gives users more control over their post listings.

Option to Ignore Sticky Posts

By default, sticky posts always appear at the top of a Query Loop. This can be useful, but sometimes you want to display posts strictly by date or category.

WordPress 6.8 introduces a new setting that lets users ignore sticky posts when setting up a Query Loop. This gives you more flexibility when designing post layouts.

If you’ve ever struggled with sticky posts disrupting your post order, this update will make it easier to control.

Improved Data Views

WordPress 6.8 brings enhancements to Data Views, making content management more intuitive and efficient.

Unified Layout Behavior

The Data Views will now offer consistent layouts across different views. For instance, you can now set it to show content previews in data views for pages.

Density Options in Table Layouts

Users will be able to adjust the density of table layouts in Data Views. This will allow for more control over how information is displayed.

Security Enhancements

WordPress 6.8 will introduce a major upgrade to password security. The way passwords are stored will be improved, making websites more resistant to attacks.

Transition to bcrypt for Password Hashing

Before this update, WordPress stored passwords using the Portable PHP Password Hashing Framework (phpass). This method relied on multiple rounds of MD5 hashing, which is now considered weak against modern attacks.

With WordPress 6.8, bcrypt will be the default algorithm for password hashing. Bcrypt is stronger because it uses a built-in “work factor”. This makes it harder for attackers to crack passwords, even with advanced hardware.

ℹ️Note: This change will automatically apply itself, and users don’t need to take any action. However, you may also wish to see our complete WordPress security guide to further strengthen your website.

Under the Hood Changes in WordPress 6.8

WordPress 6.8 also includes several behind-the-scenes updates to improve performance and make WordPress more accessible:

• More Efficient Block Type Registration: A new function wp_register_block_types_from_metadata_collection() will allow plugins to register multiple block types with a single call. (Details)
• Internationalization Improvements: WordPress will now properly localize PHPMailer error messages and ensure that plugin update emails are sent in the administrator’s language. (Details)
• Accessibility Improvement: Redundant title attributes will be removed from different elements to improve screen reader compatibility and provide a better experience for visually impaired users. (#24766)
• Block Hooks Enabled for Synced Patterns: Block Hooks will now be applied to synced patterns (i.e., core/block blocks). This will ensure consistent behavior across templates, template parts, patterns, navigation menus, and post content. (#62704)

Overall, WordPress 6.8 includes over 370 enhancements and 520 bug fixes for the editor, and more than 230 tickets have been resolved for WordPress 6.8 Core.

We hope this article helped you discover what’s coming in WordPress 6.8 and which new features you’d like to try out. We are particularly excited about the built-in speculative loading and improved design tools for WordPress users.

If you are exploring the upcoming WordPress release, then you may also be interested in learning how to fix common WordPress errors. Or maybe you would like to explore how you can get involved and contribute to WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post What’s Coming in WordPress 6.8? (Features and Screenshots) first appeared on WPBeginner.

Here’s a shocking fact: Many WordPress websites are non-compliant with current privacy regulations, and the fine for violating GDPR, for example, can be up to €20 million. That’s not a typo – millions!

If you’re already using a cookie banner tool, ask yourself these questions: Does it actually block third-party scripts before consent? Can you prove when and how your visitors gave consent? If you’re unsure, you’re probably at risk.

Without proper cookie consent management, you’re exposing your business to hefty fines. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Today, I am excited to announce WPConsent, a powerful cookie consent management plugin that ensures your website meets global privacy standards and avoid fines.

We’ve completely reimagined how WordPress websites handle privacy compliance, giving you enterprise-level features without the high price.

Background Story – Why WPConsent?

Privacy compliance has become a real headache for WordPress website owners. As more countries adopt strict data protection laws, managing cookie consent has become more complex.

I noticed many WordPress users struggling with the same issues. Some were using basic cookie notice plugins that weren’t actually making their sites compliant. That’s because those tools DO NOT actually block scripts before user consent.

Others were paying hefty annual fees for cookie solutions that are designed for large corporations.

Sadly, as a small business owner, you could still face penalties even if you didn’t understand the compliance requirements or couldn’t afford proper consent management tools.

I realized there was a crucial gap in the market – WordPress users needed a solution that is both easy to use and comprehensive enough to ensure compliance… and of course, without the high costs.

That’s why I decided to build WPConsent.

WPConsent takes the complexity out of privacy compliance while giving WordPress users all the tools they need to protect their business.

It automatically detects cookies, manages consent preferences, and keeps your site compliant with GDPR, CCPA, and other privacy regulations – all without breaking the bank or requiring technical expertise.

Note: You can also download the free version of WPConsent from WordPress.org

Here are some uses cases of WPConsent:

• Online store: WPConsent takes care of everything – from your shopping cart cookies to payment processing, while also keeping those marketing pixels in check and compliant.
• Blog or content site: The plugin makes privacy compliance simple. Your analytics, social media widgets, commenting system, and even those tricky ad networks – WPConsent manages it all so you can focus on creating great content.
• Membership sites: WPConsent takes care of all your authentication cookies and session tracking, so your members get a seamless experience.

The WPConsent plugin offers a high degree of flexibility, making it a valuable tool for addressing a wide array of cookie laws, data protection, and privacy regulations, such as

• GDPR: The General Data Protection Regulation, ePrivacy Directive, ePrivacy Regulation (European Union)
• CCPA: The California Consumer Privacy Act (California, United States)
• LGPD: The Brazilian General Data Protection Law (Brazil)
• AAP: Australia’s Privacy Principles (Australia)
• PECR: The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (UK)
• PIPEDA: The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (Canada)
• and many other international standards and laws.

You can also try the free version by downloading it from WordPress.org. Try the free version!

Let’s take a look at the top features that make WPConsent stand out from the rest.

Automatically Prevent Third-Party Scripts from Setting Cookies

WPConsent automatically prevents many popular tracking scripts from adding cookies on your website.

With the automatic script blocking feature, it detects and blocks common tracking scripts until the user gives consent like Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and more.

Plus, WPConsent also automates compliance monitoring with its auto scanning feature.

You don’t need to manually scan your website as you integrate more plugins or third-party services.

Instead, you can schedule automatic scans based on your preferred frequency: daily, weekly, or monthly.

Maximize Privacy with Self-Hosted Data Storage

The location where you store user consent data is just as important as how you collect it.

Unlike other consent management solutions, WPConsent takes a privacy-first approach by keeping all data right where it belongs – on your own server.

That means you have full control over data retention and its security.

To see consent logs, all you have to do is visit WPConsent » Consent Logs and you can see the user’s IP address, consent details, the date when they gave consent, and more.

Create Smart Cookie Consent Banners with a few Clicks

WPConsent comes with multiple layouts including banners, popup modals, and more so you can create a beautiful cookie consent notice in WordPress with just a few clicks.

You can customize the position of your banner as well based on the layout you choose. For example, if you choose ‘Long Banner’ as your layout, you can keep the banner’s position at the top or the bottom of your screen.

If you choose ‘Floating Bar’ instead, then you could display it at left top, right top, left bottom, or right bottom based on your needs.

If you want, you can customize the banner style, buttons, and even the content to match your brand perfectly.

Granular Control Over Every Cookie on Your Site

WPConsent lets you scan and detect every cookie set by your WordPress core, themes, and plugins – even those hidden ones you didn’t know about. As you scan your website, you can find all the cookies your website uses, so you can easily configure them.

Once you’ve configured them, you can view the details in Settings » Cookies.

But that’s not all, with our API integration you can get details about services and cookies used by each service automatically configured on your site.

These are the details included with each service:

• Service Name
• Service Description
• Service Category
• Service Privacy/Data URL (if 3rd party)
• List of Cookies with description and duration

Geo-Location Based Notices

It doesn’t make sense to show the same cookie consent banner to everyone when privacy laws vary by region. To provide the best user experience, WP Consent makes it easy to show or hide cookie notices for visitors based on their location.

You can either show the banner to EU visitors or select the country you want to display the cookie banner.

Generate a Cookie Policy Page Automatically

Stay legally compliant with WPConsent’s automatically generated and always up-to-date cookie policy page. The cookie policy page lists the details of all cookies used on the website, per legal requirements.

WPConsent scans your website continuously, detects all active cookies, and creates a comprehensive policy page that details each cookie’s purpose, duration, and type. 

Keep in mind that privacy regulations aren’t going away – they’re only getting stricter.

With WPConsent, you get everything you need to handle cookie consent the right way, without the complexity or cost that usually comes with it. You can start by installing the free version of the plugin here.

Don’t wait for a privacy complaint or penalty to take action. Here’s how you can ensure your website is compliant with global privacy laws right now.

• Install WPConsent in minutes
• Automatically scan and categorize your cookies
• Set up professional consent banners
• Stay compliant with global privacy laws
• Keep your visitors’ trust (and your peace of mind)

Imagine never worrying about privacy compliance again. Picture yourself confidently expanding into new markets without fear of privacy regulations.

That’s what WPConsent delivers.

We’re truly building something special here. If you have ideas on how we can make the plugin more helpful to you, please send us your suggestions.

As always, thank you for your continued support of WPBeginner. We look forward to serving you for years to come.

Yours Truly,

Syed Balkhi
Founder of WPBeginner

The post Introducing WPConsent – WordPress Privacy Compliance and Cookie Management Made Easy first appeared on WPBeginner.