WordPress 6.9 release brings many great things: new Developer APIs, core blocks, Notes, Block Visibility, and substantial editor improvements. There’s plenty for everyone to benefit from.

I could cover each feature, but to truly reflect the significance of this update, I’m choosing something seemingly basic: the Time to Read Block 😮. Surprised?

Consider this: there are over 20 plugins in the repository dedicated to this feature, plus countless paid add-ons and custom solutions. This functionality is almost as old as blogging itself! Even I implemented it multiple times as a custom solution and wrote an article about it 7 years ago – How to Display Estimated Reading Time on Blog Posts.

It’s an easy feature to add, but because it is so widespread and essential, it finally made its way into WordPress core. This inclusion means you can eliminate one plugin or custom functionality.

For developers not running a Full Site Editing (FSE) theme, you can still call it in your code with just two PHP lines:

<?php
$time_to_read_block = '<!-- wp:post-time-to-read {"displayAsRange":false} /-->';
echo wp_kses_post( do_blocks( $time_to_read_block ) );
?>

I don’t have a single “favorite” feature, though many often ask. From a developer perspective, the Abilities API is huge, but even something initially trivial like “Time to Read” provides a massive, tangible benefit to the ecosystem. 🎯👏