We are in the midst of a massive project, Divi 5, and I like to update the community every month on our progress. Last month, we dug deep into the five stages of the Divi 5 beta program to better understand how we are approaching such a big project in the most advantageous way for Divi users. We are in Phase 1, Dev Alpha, and we are getting closer to launching Dev Beta, at which point the new Divi 5 API will be solidified. We will invite more developers to join the program while we work towards the first public release later this year.
In this month’s update, we’ll talk about the updates we made to Divi 5. I’ll also show you how fast Divi 5 is, and then I’ll give you a sneak peek of our upcoming Divi AI feature! Let’s dig in.
What We Accomplished This Month
We got a lot done this month! There are many little things that we are filling in, one by one, as we inch closer to our first public release, where the UI will need to be polished and a solid set of Divi features will need to be finished. We worked on section dividers, background videos, condition options, responsive content and fixed a few bugs.
Most of our work focused on solidifying the Divi 5 API, which is what the Dev Beta versions are about. The general trend here is that we are building a foundation to make it easier for our team and the development community to create great Divi modules and features. We need to get this part right so everything else falls into place how we want it to.
We worked on unifying and simplifying Divi 5’s new REST API. We finished several new functions and their implementations, which aim to significantly reduce the time it takes to create a Divi module. Again, we are putting in extra work at the foundation level so that the rest of the Divi 5 project will go faster, and all the modules and features we add after Divi 5 will be developed more quickly.
We also refactored Divi’s shortcode conversion method, which will play an essential role in backward compatibility.
If you are interested in the finer details, here are the most recent changelogs entries:
Divi 5.0.0-dev-alpha.4
Divi 5.0.0-dev-alpha.5
Divi 5.0.0-dev-alpha.6
The Speed of Divi 5
Before we wrap up today’s post, I want to discuss speed. As you may know, we aren’t planning to add many, if any, new features to Divi 5. However, one of the most significant changes that will come with this new version is a massive increase in speed, especially in the Visual Builder, where we all spend so much time.
Even though the Divi 5 UI isn’t finished, and the builder is missing features, I still wanted to give you a sneak peek at the difference in performance that I keep talking about. So please withhold judgment about how things look in this video, which will change, and just focus on the speed of the interactions!
You will immediately notice everything appears instantly as elements are hovered over on the page. Opening the settings popup is equally snappy, as is adjusting design settings. It’s a night and day difference across the board. Also, it doesn’t matter how big and complex the page becomes. The Visual Builder can handle it, and it remains fast.
Achieving this level of speed wasn’t possible in Divi 4, and it’s one of the reasons that this Divi 5 re-architecture is so important.
Coming Soon: Divi AI
That’s everything for this month’s Divi 5 update. However, I do have one more teaser for you. While almost our entire team is focused on Divi 5, we still have a small group of people working on Divi 4 features that won’t affect Divi 5 development, and right now, we are working on something very exciting.
It’s called Divi AI, and it leverages large language models to help you create content, such as text and images, for your Divi websites right inside the builder! Since it’s integrated into Divi, we can teach things about the builder and your website to help it create or improve your content in a way that makes sense and feels incredibly intuitive.
Check out today’s Youtube video for a sneak peek at Divi AI.
Stay Tuned For More Updates
That’s all for our May progress report. If you have any questions, be sure to leave a comment. Stay tuned for next month’s update, and I’ll see you in the next one!
This content was originally published here.