WordPress announced its upcoming 7.0 release will exclude the real-time collaboration feature due to technical concerns and legal distractions, a decision largely met with relief by its community.
The exclusion marked a significant delay for a highly anticipated feature, originally planned as Phase 3 of a four-phase development roadmap, which aimed to allow multiple users to edit content simultaneously and eliminate post locking issues.
Matt Mullenweg, a co-founder of WordPress, cited several technical challenges, including concerns about surface area, race conditions, server load, memory efficiency, and recurring bugs, as primary reasons for the feature’s removal from the core.
Mullenweg also indicated that ongoing “WP Engine lawfare and depositions” had consumed critical personnel time, further impacting the development timeline for the real-time collaboration feature.
WordPress.com has been progressively rolling out the real-time collaboration feature to its VIP and Enterprise users since late 2025, and it remains available on paid plans for those customers.
The broader WordPress community largely expressed agreement and relief regarding the decision, with some members suggesting that real-time collaboration should not be a core feature of the platform.
Katie Keith, a notable community member, suggested that the feature was likely delayed rather than permanently abandoned and anticipated its eventual return to the platform.
The technical process for removing the feature from the core development branch is being managed through discussions in #65205 and #feature-realtime-collaboration.
Justin Ferriman, Mark Wesguard, and Hendrik Luehrsen are among other individuals who have participated in community discussions surrounding the feature’s development and recent deferral.
The deferral of real-time collaboration means WordPress 7.0 will focus on other core enhancements, with the collaborative editing capabilities expected in a future release.
Source: Search Engine Journal
