Advanced Custom Fields version 6.6 is now available! 🚀🎉

This release introduces the all-new ACF Blocks V3, a powerful evolution from Version 2, paving the way for the future of ACF Blocks without requiring changes to how you build blocks. We’ve also packed in highly requested features like a separate display title for field groups and a customizable Color Picker, plus a host of other improvements and bug fixes.

Introducing ACF Blocks V3

ACF Blocks V3 is a major step forward for creating and managing custom blocks with ACF. We’ve completely rethought the editing experience to solve the UX issues of the old inline “Edit” mode, giving you more space to manage your fields and creating a workflow that feels more native to WordPress.

Previously, editing an ACF Block meant the block’s preview was replaced entirely by an inline form. While this provided direct access to the fields, it took the block out of its visual context, making it difficult to see how your changes would look alongside other content.

ACF Blocks v2 old edit mode

A key reason for this change is how modern WordPress works. To ensure a block’s preview is accurate, WordPress now renders each block within its own <iframe>. This isolates the block from the admin’s styles to prevent them from bleeding into the frontend style of the blocks, but it also created technical challenges for our old inline editing form.

In ACF Blocks V3, the fields now open in a larger, dedicated expanded editor panel, keeping the block’s preview visible in the editor. This means developers can enjoy the full benefits of WordPress’s block <iframe> architecture while giving content editors a much-improved, streamlined experience. This change also allows for significantly more space for your fields – a game-changer for complex fields like Repeaters and Galleries.

ACF Blocks v3 improved editing panel

But ACF Blocks V3 is more than just a better editing experience today. It also lays the technical groundwork for a host of powerful features we have planned, including the highly anticipated ‘Inline Editing’ of block data directly in the preview. We recently demoed this upcoming feature in an episode of ACF Chat Fridays, check it out to see what the future of ACF Blocks looks like.

To start using ACF Blocks V3, you’ll need to opt-in on a per-block basis. In your block’s block.json file, simply set the "blockVersion" under the "acf" key to 3:

{
    "name": "acf/my-block",
    "title": "My Block",
    "description": "My Custom Block that uses ACF fields.",
    "acf": {
        "blockVersion": 3
    }
}

For more information on ACF Blocks V3, see our documentation.

Staying on ACF Blocks V2

We understand that many developers have built powerful editing experiences for clients centered around the current ‘edit’ mode, sometimes even forgoing a preview template for headless or highly customized setups. For this reason, ACF Blocks V3 is an opt-in feature. If you do nothing, your blocks will continue to function exactly as they do now using V2. There is no immediate need to upgrade.

However, to take advantage of the new expanded editing UI and upcoming features like inline editing, blocks will need to be on V3. We encourage developers to start considering an upgrade path for their V2 blocks, especially as WordPress core will eventually be mandating the use of v3/iframe blocks (potentially with WordPress 7.0 in 2026). This typically involves ensuring your blocks have a PHP template for rendering a preview in the editor, and communicating the new editing experience with your content editors. This will not only prepare you for the future of ACF Blocks but also align your blocks more closely with the native WordPress editing experience.

Clarify Field Groups with Display Titles

Have you ever created a field group with a name that makes perfect sense to you as the site creator, but might be confusing for your content authors? We’ve got you covered.

In ACF 6.6, you can now give a field group a separate Display Title. This title will be shown to content authors when they are editing a post, page, or custom post type, while the original title will still be used in the ACF admin.

To use this feature, simply edit your field group and look for the “Display Title” field under “Settings” > “Group Settings”.

ACF Field Group Display Title setting

Custom Palettes for the Color Picker

The Color Picker field just got a lot more flexible. In ACF 6.6, you can now define a custom color palette for the field, ensuring that your content authors are always using your brand’s colors.

You can also disable the color wheel to restrict users to only the colors in your palette. Additionally, if your theme uses a theme.json file, the Color Picker can automatically pull the colors defined there.

To customize the Color Picker, edit the field and navigate to the “Presentation” tab. You can add a Color Palette by entering a comma-separated list of hex codes.

Required WordPress Version Change

As of ACF and ACF PRO 6.6, the minimum required WordPress version is now 6.2. We don’t take increasing the minimum version lightly, but this change was necessary to support the new features and improvements in this release, most notably ACF Blocks V3. The new block editing experience relies on more modern WordPress block APIs that are only available in recent versions.

If you are running a version of WordPress lower than 6.2, you will see a warning message in your dashboard after updating to ACF 6.6.

And More

For a full list of all the changes in this release, check out the ACF 6.6 changelog.

What’s Next?

We’re already hard at work on the next version of ACF, with more new features and improvements planned – including the much anticipated Inline Editing for ACF Blocks.

If you want to be the first to hear about pre-release versions of these new features for testing, sign up to our beta news email list.

If there’s features or improvements you’d love to see in ACF, please drop them into our feedback board and vote on others that are important to you.

Keep up to date with what we’re working on in our monthly ACF Chat Fridays office hours.

Thanks to everyone in the ACF community who helped make this release possible! 🙌

Are you excited about the new features and improvements in ACF 6.6? Let us know in the comments below or on X.