WordPress 4.2 is here!
Originally posted by WordPress on 23 April 2015
Version 4.2 of WordPress, named “Powell” in honor of jazz pianist Bud Powell, is available for download or update in your WordPress dashboard. New features in 4.2 help you communicate and share, globally.
An easier way to share content
Clip it, edit it, publish it. Get familiar with the new and improved Press This. From the Tools menu, add Press This to your browser bookmark bar or your mobile device home screen. Once installed you can share your content with lightning speed. Sharing your favorite videos, images, and content has never been this fast or this easy.
Extended character support
Writing in WordPress, whatever your language, just got better. WordPress 4.2 supports a host of new characters out-of-the-box, including native Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters, musical and mathematical symbols, and hieroglyphs.
Don’t use any of those characters? You can still have fun — emoji are now available in WordPress! Get creative and decorate your content with 
, 
, 
, 
, and all the many other emoji.
Switch themes in the Customizer
Browse and preview your installed themes from the Customizer. Make sure the theme looks great with your content, before it debuts on your site.
Even more embeds
Paste links from Tumblr.com and Kickstarter and watch them magically appear right in the editor. With every release, your publishing and editing experience get closer together.
Streamlined plugin updates
Goodbye boring loading screen, hello smooth and simple plugin updates. ClickUpdate Now and watch the magic happen.
Under the Hood
utf8mb4 support
Database character encoding has changed from utf8 to utf8mb4, which adds support for a whole range of new 4-byte characters.
JavaScript accessibility
You can now send audible notifications to screen readers in JavaScript withwp.a11y.speak(). Pass it a string, and an update will be sent to a dedicated ARIA live notifications area.
Shared term splitting
Terms shared across multiple taxonomies will be split when one of them is updated. Find out more in the Plugin Developer Handbook.
Complex query ordering
WP_Query, WP_Comment_Query, and WP_User_Query now support complex ordering with named meta query clauses.
