BuddyPress 2.6.0 Beta 1 is available for testing. You can download the 2.6.0-beta1 zip or get a copy via our Subversion repository. We’d love to have your feedback and testing help.

NB: If you are still using WordPress 3.9, we remind you that BuddyPress 2.6.0 will require at least WordPress 4.1.

A detailed changelog will be part of our official release notes, but, until then, here’s a tasty list of some of our favorite changes. (Check out this report on Trac for the full list.)

  • A new API to manage single items (Member or Group) navigation: this is an important improvement. If you are directly accessing buddypress()->bp_nav or buddypress()->bp_options_nav, be aware that this type of access will be deprecated in 2.6.0. We advise you to carefully read this commit message for more information (#6534). You’re going to love the new API.
  • Activity Embeds: embed BP activity items in posts on any WordPress 4.5 (or up)-powered site (#6772)!
  • Group Types API is now available (#6784) and groups will now have their very own default avatar (#6372)!
  • Themes will be able to use a custom front page for member profiles (#6769).
  • We’ve also improved many of our templates, be ready to check your custom templates when 2.6.0 is released. (#6774, #7074)
  • Some of our Administration Screens also got some love and accessibility improvements (#7065, #7080, #7081).
  • Tons of under-the-hood & performance improvements (e.g. #6327, #6853, #7078).
  • Many notifications improvements (e.g. #7023, #6750).
  • Many internationalization improvements (e.g. #6899, #6900, #6901). To our language pack maintainers: thanks in advance for your work updating our translations!
  • Continued coverage of inline code documentation, actions, & filters.

2.6.0 is almost ready (release is planned for June 22, 2016), but please do not run this Beta 1 release in a production environment just yet. Let us know of any issues you find in the support forums and/or on our development tracker.

Thanks everyone for all your contributions so far; please help us test and polish the 2.6.0 release so it can be as awesome as possible!