Classic block stays in inserter; planned removal reverted

In an earlier post, we announced that the Classic block (core/freeform) would be hidden from the inserter by default starting in WordPress 7.1, accompanied by a new filter and a companion plugin.

We’ve decided to revert this change. The Classic block will continue to appear in the inserter in WordPress 7.1, exactly as it does today. There is no change in behavior for users or developers, and no migration is required.

What this means

• The Classic block remains available in the inserter by default. You can insert new Classic blocks through the inserter, block library, and slash commands as before.
• The wp_classic_block_supports_inserter filter has been removed. Because this change never shipped in a stable WordPress release, the filter has no backward-compatibility footprint; there is nothing to migrate away from.
• The block-level deprecation/migration notice has been removed. The Classic block editing experience returns to what it was previously, including the “Convert to blocks” toolbar action.
• The Enable Classic Block plugin will be closed. With the default behavior restored, the plugin no longer serves a purpose. If you installed it, you can safely deactivate and remove it; no action is otherwise needed.

Why we’re reverting

After discussing this with a number of people and gathering feedback from different places, it became clear that this approach had things largely backward. It’s one step that makes the experience worse with no direct gain, and it doesn’t really get us any closer to transparently not loading TinyMCE. One of the takeaways is that the Classic block should become obsolete by choice, not by force. We believe time will be better spent to make the alternative genuinely better, while also smoothly, losslessly migrating content, so that users move off Classic block because they want to, not because we removed the door.

Where the effort goes next

Much of the groundwork from this effort remains valuable, and we intend to keep pursuing it from a user-first angle:

• Understanding more in-depth why users still rely on Classic and bridging those gaps
• Make “Convert to Blocks” flawless – it still has a bunch of flaws and inconsistencies
• Work on better and more intuitive conversion/migration mechanisms, including mass migration
• Improve TinyMCE asset registration and allow it to be disabled under various circumstances.
• Build a mechanism for declaring proper explicit dependency on TinyMCE and work with plugins to utilize it.
• Continue exploring ways to load TinyMCE on demand / asynchronously, among other performance improvements
• Not loading TinyMCE on the block editor if the Classic Block is disabled from the block manager

Thank you to everyone who shared feedback and helped course-correct here. This work continues, pointed more squarely at what’s best for users.

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Props to @mamaduka for reviewing this post.

#7-1, #dev-notes, #dev-notes-7-1