v2.5.0 Latest
September 26, 2026
New 5 Improve 25 Fix 26 Security 5 Dev 5 Compat 1
New
- Story viewer works from the keyboard: Esc closes, arrow keys move between items, Space pauses, M mutes, and focus returns to the story circle on close.
- Uploads that take a long time keep showing "Posting..." until they finish, so members no longer post the same story twice.
- Double-tap a story (or double-click on desktop) to like it. A double tap never removes a like.
- Circle Size setting (Small, Medium, Large) under Styling Options sets how big story circles are in the Instagram layout.
- Authors can delete a photo or video straight from the story viewer, from the "..." menu next to Close.
Improve
- The posting form opens on the photo or video picker, with one Share button and one "Who can see this story" choice for the whole story.
- Link, duration and collection fields are tucked behind "Add a link or set duration" and "Add to a collection" instead of showing on every item.
- Videos play in full by default instead of being cut off at 6 seconds, and photos use the duration set in the settings.
- Story circles and the viewer show the member's display name (PeepSo full name or BuddyPress name) instead of their login name, and follow renames.
- Members see a plain "Choose a photo or video" message instead of a long list of file extensions.
- Uploads default to formats every browser can play, so a story no longer uploads and then fails to show. Other formats can still be allowed in Allowed File Types.
- Pages load the posting editor only when a member taps "Add story", and pages without stories load nothing from the plugin.
- The image editor fits on phones: all tools are visible in one row and tool panels open as a bottom sheet above the photo.
- Site-wide story trays load the 50 most recent stories instead of every story on the site, so large communities stay fast.
- Viewer buttons and form buttons keep their look on every theme.
- One "Your story" circle: your own story comes first with a + badge to add more, like Instagram.
- The stories row no longer leaves an empty gap on pages where there are no stories to show.
- "Who can see this story" is offered wherever members can post, and "Friends only" appears only when a friends system is active.
- A picked photo fills the picker without its file name or size, and a picked video shows its first frame with its own remove button.
- Editing a photo updates it in the picker, replacing the extra "Image Edited" box and red Remove button.
- The image editor centres the photo on phones, keeps it clear of the side toolbars on desktop, and uses the same blue as Share.
- Notifications no longer cover the site header: they appear at the bottom on phones and below the toolbar on desktop.
- Photos that do not fill the screen sit on a blurred copy of themselves instead of a colour gradient. A background you chose under Styling Options is kept.
- Authors no longer see a Like button on their own stories.
- The page that shows who saw your stories is titled "Your stories" and lists each viewer as a compact row: photo, name, when they saw it and whether they liked it.
- The view count in the viewer shows the eye icon and number, like the heart, instead of "0 View".
- Clearer, friendlier wording across the story form, viewer, widgets and settings, with one name for each thing: collections, member stories and the Your story control.
- The WP Stories settings screens work on phones: the tabs are one swipeable row and nothing runs off the screen.
- The posting form no longer lists your existing collections. Manage collection items from the viewer's "..." menu or your profile Stories page.
- The BuddyPress Seen by list no longer shows a friendship button on each viewer. PeepSo keeps its member buttons.
Fix
- Stories no longer stall when moving between videos, and holding a story now pauses photos and videos alike.
- A story item with a missing or unplayable video is skipped instead of freezing the viewer.
- "Load more" on the Seen by list works again on BuddyPress and PeepSo.
- Deleting a story or item always clears the busy screen and shows a clear message if the connection drops.
- Liking a story on a slow connection can no longer undo the like.
- Friends-only and other visibility choices now apply to every item in a story, not only the first one.
- The plugin zip no longer contains a file named shell.php, which some hosting firewalls blocked on upload.
- RTL sites no longer request a stylesheet that did not exist.
- A story is only saved with one of the four visibility choices; any other value falls back to the default.
- Deleting a photo or video that was already deleted now says so instead of reporting success.
- After editing a photo, the form now shows the edited photo instead of the original.
- The list of who saw a story shows the most recent viewers first, and every row, including those added by Load more, shows whether that person liked it.
- The form="1" option of the [wb-story-activities] shortcode now shows the Your story control, so members can post from any page.
- A file over the size limit now shows "This file is too big - Choose one under 10 MB" with the limit you set, instead of a technical message quoting a different size.
- A member who posts something new gets a coloured ring again for people who already watched their earlier stories.
- A rejected collection cover now shows why it was rejected instead of an empty circle.
- A photo or video deleted from the Media Library is left out of the story instead of showing a black screen.
- Story circle names follow the theme text color, so they stay readable in dark mode. A title color you set in Styling Options still applies.
- The like, view and Message buttons in the story viewer sit in one centered row that also works on right-to-left sites.
- On right-to-left sites the viewer follows reading order: the left side of the screen and the left arrow key go forward.
- Messages raised while the story viewer or photo editor is open now show on top of them instead of behind.
- The Your Stories widget now shows its option description.
- Adding another photo or video after picking a video starts with an empty picker instead of showing the previous video.
- The Documentation links in the WP Stories settings open the current documentation.
- A collection cover that fails to upload now shows the upload error instead of saving the collection without a cover.
- The Move Seen Stories to End setting now works: when it is off, watched stories keep their place in the row.
Security
- Only members in the Authorized User Roles setting can post stories. Before, the role setting hid the button but did not block the upload.
- Lists of who viewed and who liked a story are only sent to the story's author.
- Stories are no longer listed in the WordPress REST API, where private and friends-only stories were visible.
- SVG files can no longer be uploaded as story media.
- The Maximum File Size setting is now enforced on the server as well as in the browser.
Dev
- New filters wp_stories_current_user_can_post, wp_stories_query_limit, wp_stories_lazy_editor and wp_stories_show_in_rest, and the action wp_stories_submit_form_printed.
- Added a WPML configuration so stories are shown in every language rather than duplicated per language.
- CSS custom properties --wpst-circle-size, --wpst-tray-label-size and --wpst-like-burst-color for theme-level tuning.
- New filter wp_stories_viewers_per_page sets how many viewers the BuddyPress Seen by list shows before Load more.
- Removed the unused edited-preview stylesheet and a developer test page from the plugin package.
Compat
- Requires WordPress 6.5 and PHP 8.1. Tested up to WordPress 7.1 and BuddyPress 14.5.2.