Title: Widgets Screen Not Shipping in 5.6 Author: Josepha Published: October 22, 2020 --- [ ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/) [Josepha](https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/) 10:23 pm _on_ October 22, 2020 Tags: [5.6 ( 85 )](https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/5-6/), [5.7 ( 67 )](https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/5-7/)    # Widgets Screen Not Shipping in 5.6 The Widgets Screen project was pencilled in for 5.6, but as of BetaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. 1, work on its major features was not complete, so Release LeadRelease Lead The community member ultimately responsible for the Release. [@chanthaboune](https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/), CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Tech Lead [@helen](https://profiles.wordpress.org/helen/), Editor Tech Lead [@isabel_brison](https://profiles.wordpress.org/isabel_brison/) and some of the contributors working actively on the project — [@noisysocks](https://profiles.wordpress.org/noisysocks/), [@talldan](https://profiles.wordpress.org/talldan/) and [@kevin940726](https://profiles.wordpress.org/kevin940726/)— decided to exclude it from 5.6. Thank you to everyone who tested and gave feedback as it helped inform this decision!  ## The Reasoning [Making the Customizer work with the block editor is a challenging process](https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/25818), and one that needs  substantial and thoughtful work to make sure that we deliver the best possible user experience. At the current stage of this project a bulk of that work is done, but more focused testing revealed notable concerns for overall usability (including customizerCustomizer Tool built into WordPress core that hooks into most modern themes. You can use it to preview and modify many of your site’s appearance settings. interactions, some confusions between blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. & legacy widgets, and UXUX User experience disparities between the old and new screens). You can [read more in the ticket](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/51506#comment:15). ## Next Steps We will continue working on the Widgets screen, and will keep the new screen as the default option when using the GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. [https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/](https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/) pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress. org Plugin Directory [https://wordpress.org/plugins/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/) or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. to encourage more feedback.  At the top of the year, we’ll explore where this fits in the larger roadmap for future releases. For those looking to get involved until then, check out the options below: * It’s been tentatively added to the [WP5.7 milestone](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?group=status&milestone=5.7), with an `early` tagtag A directory in Subversion. WordPress uses tags to store a single snapshot of a version (3.6, 3.6.1, etc.), the common convention of tags in version control systems. (Not to be confused with post tags.) so that it comes up in scrubs as quickly as possible. * If you’re interested in following the status of the project, you can find the top priority issues and current focuses on the [Widgets Editor project board in GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/projects/27). * If you can help with development, we encourage you to attend or review the weekly triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. sessions in the [#core Slack channel](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW) on Wednesdays at [7am UTC](https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20201022T0700). * If you can help with testing, please feel free to leave comments on the [Call for Testing](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/09/30/call-for-testing-the-widgets-screen-in-gutenberg-9-1/) for us to review or to open issues [directly in GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues). In particular, we’d love to hear from plugin and theme authors.  Thanks in advance for everyone’s help making sure that this key element is a success! [#5-6](https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/5-6/), [#5-7](https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/5-7/) ### Share this: * [ Threads ](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/10/22/widgets-screen-not-shipping-in-5-6/?share=threads) * [ Mastodon ](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/10/22/widgets-screen-not-shipping-in-5-6/?share=mastodon) * [ Bluesky ](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/10/22/widgets-screen-not-shipping-in-5-6/?share=bluesky) * [ X ](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/10/22/widgets-screen-not-shipping-in-5-6/?share=x) * [ Facebook ](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/10/22/widgets-screen-not-shipping-in-5-6/?share=facebook) * [ LinkedIn ](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/10/22/widgets-screen-not-shipping-in-5-6/?share=linkedin) 1. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/51870c6be7b8adbc396481c5897152cde8cc4af418d08ae59d7a88a72f0e7bdb? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 2. [huntingtonow](https://profiles.wordpress.org/huntingtonow/) 7:24 pm _on_ January 3, 2021 3. What are those of us who have been using widgets, depend on them for advertising and certains announcements supposed to do? My advertising is crippled without this element. When I tried to revert to an earlier WP version just to save my site, my host, unfortunately, decided to update me back to 5.6. Under both version, other things, such as Jetpack, ability to edit photos and several other things, were crippled, I suspect because they’d already updated to fit 5.6. What are we supposed to do now? Comments are closed. # Post navigation [← CSS Chat Agenda: 22 October 2020](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/10/22/css-chat-agenda-22-october-2020/) [Code review/commit office hours for 5.6 →](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/10/22/code-review-commit-office-hours-for-5-6/)