Block Visibility reached 9,000 active users earlier this month after over two years of steady growth. It’s an exciting milestone, especially with WordPress 6.2 set to launch next week. Therefore, I can’t wait to reveal what’s coming in Block Visibility 3.0.0, but before doing so, I want to provide a brief history of the plugin.

The idea for Block Visibility originated from my personal need to conditionally hide blocks while constructing a website in 2020. No great solution existed, so I decided to build my own. Eventually, I released the Pro add-on in the summer of 2021 to provide more advanced features that users had requested and to help support myself while developing the main plugin.

Giving back to the WordPress community has always been important to me. I am a member of the WordPress 6.2 release squad, and contributing to Core while helping others build with modern WordPress techniques is a true passion.

Therefore, I am grateful that the continued development of Block Visibility no longer requires the sale of a paid add-on. As a result, I have decided to merge Pro with the main Block Visibility plugin and offer all features for free.

So what’s included in 3.0.0?

Block Visibility 3.0.0 is now available in the WordPress plugins repository. It will include all existing Pro features except the WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads controls, which will be added later in April with version 3.1.0. There are some minor changes I want to make before adding this functionality to the main plugin.

Notable new features in version 3.0.0 include:

• Browser & Device control
• Cookie control
• Location control
• Metadata control
• Referral Source control
• URL Path control
• Visibility Presets
• Day of Week and Time of Day functionality for the Date & Time control
• Control set utility support (copy, paste, import)

From this point on, all new development will be made directly to Block Visibility. I will also be removing all sales material from the plugin website, and future content work will focus on updating documentation and new tutorials.

What does this mean for Pro customers?

All customers with an active Block Visibility Pro subscription were emailed on March 22nd with advanced notice of the release and were provided with additional information. If you are a subscriber but did not receive an email, please check your spam folder or contact support@blockvisibilitywp.com directly.

If you are currently using Pro, once you upgrade to Block Visibility 3.0.0, everything will remain the same from a technical perspective. The Pro add-on will continue to function normally, and you can safely disable it if you’re not using the WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads controls. Once Block Visibility 3.1.0 is launched in April, you can entirely deactivate Pro.

Without Pro subscribers, Block Visibility wouldn’t be where it is today, and this transition would not have been possible. Thank you for your support. 🙏

What’s next for Block Visibility?

For the next release, I will focus on adding the WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads controls to Block Visibility while making subtle improvements throughout. Documentation is another area that will be getting attention, especially around how developers can build their own Block Visibility extensions. For a sneak peek, you can check out this example add-on plugin.

I also expect a few bugs may arise out of version 3.0.0. The features from Pro have been thoroughly tested, but not on the scale of 9,000+ users. Opening up the plugin to a broader audience will naturally make it more robust to the many different ways people use WordPress.

So if you do find a bug, please submit a support ticket or, better yet, create an issue on the Block Visibility GitHub repo. Pull requests are also always welcome!

Finally, I want to reiterate my thanks to those that purchased Pro in the past and the thousands of users who have supported Block Visibility since its creation. I believe strongly in the future of block-based WordPress, and I’m so proud that this plugin is becoming a fundamental tool for so many.

The next chapter of Block Visibility begins now.