WordPress 4.5, the next version of WordPress is already in development and is targeted to release in April 2016.

We just saw the release of WordPress 4.4, and the latest security and maintenance version WordPress 4.4.1 was released earlier this week.

The core development team has now published a project schedule targeting its release in mid-April. The current target release date is April 12, 2016.

The beta-1 version of WordPress 4.5 is planned to release by the end of upcoming February, and three more beta versions of the software will be released before the final release candidate.

Here’s the planned chart showing the project schedule for WordPress version 4.5.

WordPress core developer, Mike Schroder is the release lead for the version 4.5. He will be assisted by two other release deputies, Mel Choyce, and Adam Silverstein.

Announced at the latest core developer chat, Adam Silverstein will support as the release deputy and Mel Choyce as the design deputy for WordPress 4.5.

As you can see in the project schedule, all new enhancements and feature requests for the version 4.5 will need to be added by the release of Beta 1 version.

All the new features are first worked on as plugins and are decided to be merged in the core over the course of development.

I will surely come up with a post with the upcoming features in WordPress 4.5 then, but few features worth mentioning that are being worked on and also made it to discussions in the opening meeting include;

• Improvements with customizer including customize pane resizer and customize device preview.
• Improving Post Edit and Publishing process.
• Improving the compression of images in core
• HTTPs improvements to fix mixed content

Additionally, new features, worked on currently as plugins, that already look exciting to me include:

• Two-Factor Authentication for WordPress – See the current version plugin here.
• Background Image Cropper – enabling cropping to background images in the Customizer, similar to the header images. See the plugin under development here.

• Shiny Updates – removing the ugly bits of updating plugins and themes.
• WP Toolbar Experiments – some potential UX changes to the WordPress toolbar.
• WordPress REST API (Version 2) – of course, the complete version of WordPress REST API we all have been waiting for!

You can see more of the feature plugins being developed here.

I am excited about the improved image compressions, HTTPs improvements and the Two-Factor Authentication for WordPress.

What features are you expecting and excited about in the WordPress 4.5? Let me know in the comments below.