XenForo 2.4: every feature announced so far

XenForo 2.4 isn't out yet: as of late September 2026, the current release is XenForo 2.3.13. But XenForo has shown a lot of the new version in its "Have you seen...?" posts. Here is every XenForo 2.4 feature announced so far, and what each one means for your forum and its add-ons.

Where XenForo 2.4 stands

XenForo announced version 2.4 in September 2024. It is an in-between release, while work on XenForo 3.0 continues in the background. The focus is quality-of-life changes for admins, moderators and members. XenForo also said it wants to keep backwards compatibility problems to a minimum.

The first target was a release between late 2024 and early 2025. That slipped. In June 2025, XenForo explained the delay: the scope grew, and it chose to wait for a new version of its editor library. It also said development was nearing its end, with about 15 more features merged or waiting that it hadn't announced yet.

XenForo hasn't given a new date in any of these posts. So treat anything you read about a XenForo 2.4 release date as a guess until XenForo announces one.

A new editor built on Tiptap

The biggest change members will see is the editor. XenForo 2.4 replaces it with one built on Tiptap, an open-source editor framework. XenForo first planned it for 3.0, then brought it forward.

• Markdown-style shortcuts format text as you type, and you see the change straight away.
• Core features show as they will look, instead of as raw BB code. Typing BB code by hand still works.
• Pressing Enter starts a new paragraph. Shift and Enter gives a single line break.
• XenForo built the whole interface itself, so it matches the default style. In early screenshots the toolbar sat below the text.
• Add-on developers get a new way to add their own editor features.

In the June 2025 update, XenForo said it would ship 2.4 with Tiptap version 3, which was then in beta.

Bigger uploads and a newer PHP

Chunked uploads become a core feature. They split a file into small pieces and join them again on the server. XenForo based it on an add-on by JulianD.

This helps when your host limits upload sizes, or when Cloudflare sits in front of your forum. XenForo notes that Cloudflare caps uploads at 100 MB, and that PHP's default limit can be as low as 2 MB. With chunked uploads on, XenForo gives the theoretical limit as 128 GB. You set the size of each chunk and how many upload at once.

The same post raised the minimum PHP version. XenForo 2.4 needs PHP 8.0.2 or newer. XenForo said about 90% of its customers on 2.3 already run PHP 8.0 or above.

Custom fields you can filter and search

Thread custom fields get two long-requested options. Both are switches under "General options" when you add or edit a field:

• Filtering adds the field to the Filters menu on the thread list, so members can narrow a forum to matching threads.
• Searching adds the field's values to the search index. Quick search finds them, and the Search forums page can match several fields at once.

Under the hood, each field type now has its own handler. That lets add-on developers create new custom field types for the first time.

Featured content, messages, GIFs and phones

Featured content

Featured content arrived in 2.3, and 2.4 refines it:

• An "Unfeature after..." setting removes a feature after a set number of days.
• You choose how many features show per page, and how long their snippets are.
• A new permission controls who can view the featured content list.
• New advertising positions sit around the feature list.
• Widgets can include features from child forums.
• Activity summary emails can include a "Latest featured content" section.
• The REST API can manage featured content.

Direct message labels

Members can label their direct messages, much like tagging a thread. A message can have up to 10 labels. The inbox can be filtered by label, and advanced search can match several labels.

A choice of GIF provider

GIPHY support becomes a general "GIF provider" option, and KLIPY is added as a second provider. Your GIPHY setting moves across on upgrade. KLIPY can serve animations as GIF or as smaller WebP files.

Phones, notifications and security

Several of these changes come from code that the developer digitalpoint gave to XenForo.

• The installable web app improves. Members stay logged in after installing it, and badge counts update when they switch back to it.
• Admins can change the web app manifest with a new option.
• Push notification subscriptions become more reliable, and the prompt to allow them is easier to see.
• In browsers that support it, protection against cross-site request forgery uses Fetch Metadata instead of tokens. This avoids stale token errors, a common problem when Cloudflare caches guest pages.
• Flash messages stack instead of overlapping, can be closed, and have a position setting.

What XenForo 2.4 means for your add-ons

One feature is aimed squarely at add-ons. Add-on update notifications let your forum check XenForo's Resource Manager for newer versions of what you have installed. You switch it on under "Basic board options". It only knows about add-ons whose authors list them there. XenForo said it hoped to let developers point to their own update address later.

Other changes matter for developers:

• The database layer moves from mysqli to PDO, with a new query builder.
• SQLite becomes an option for development and testing. XenForo still recommends MySQL for live forums.
• PHP 8.0.2 becomes the minimum, as mentioned above.

XenForo aims to avoid breaking changes, but a new editor and a new database layer touch a lot of code. When XenForo 2.4 comes out, check every add-on's requirements before you upgrade. Our post on XenForo add-on compatibility shows how to read them. Each of our product pages also lists the XenForo version every release needs.

What to do next

• Check which PHP version your forum runs now. Our guide on how to find your XenForo and PHP version shows where to look.
• If you're below PHP 8.0.2, plan the PHP upgrade with your host before XenForo 2.4 arrives.
• Note which add-ons change the editor or uploads. They're the ones most likely to need new versions.
• Follow our changelog for new releases of our add-ons.