Magento has just released its latest version (and it seems to be the only version released this year as well). The release was made public on the 14th of March 2023. Not only is it a major release with a lot of new improvements and bug fixes, but it is also the first release that Adobe has done, using a public voting system for the Open Source release. 

Magento 2.4.6 brings with it a host of exciting new features and improvements, making it a significant release for e-commerce businesses. Here are some of the highlights:

•  Added support for the latest PHP 8.2.
• JavaScript's libraries are now upgraded to their latest versions
• Eight security enhancements and fixes
• Merchants can finally specify a custom external SMTP provider
• Merchants can now bulk drag-and-drop images into the page builder (Commerce only)
• New accessibility updates added

Let’s dive into some of the main highlights of this release!

This release has 8 security fixes and platform security improvements, as well as a few other updates that ensure the safety and integrity of your online store;

• reCAPTCHA validation no longer fails during checkout when unexpected errors occur during payment processing.
• New system configuration for requiring email confirmation when an admin user changes their email.

This latest Magento release introduces advanced support for the latest version PHP 8.2, which promises improved performance and security features. Additionally, this release continues to fully support PHP 8.1 while PHP 7.4 is no longer supported and has been completely removed.  It's important to note that if you have not yet upgraded your PHP version to 8.1, you won't be able to run this new version on your Magento Installation. 
 It's essential to note that running on PHP 7.4 could compromise your shop's PCI compliance, making it vulnerable to potential security threats. Therefore, removing support for PHP 7.4 from the new release aligns with the latest PCI compliance standards, ensuring the safety and security of your online store.

In the latest Magento Core update, significant changes have been made to the default search functionality. 

• OpenSearch is now supported as the default search engine, instead of ElasticSearc has replaced ElasticSearch as the default search engine h
• ElasticSearch 8 is no longert supported

Finally, the jQuary Migrate has been removed, eliminating the jQuery warnings in the console.

A lot of other JavaScript and 3rd party libraries have also been upgraded to ensure compatibility with the latest versions and improve overall performance. 

Now merchants can finally define a custom external SMTP provider without relying on third-party extensions simplifying the process to send email via a custom SMTP service.
This is a powerful addition to the Magento core.

Moreover, the new version of Magento, has optimized and improved the categoryList  query to support merchants with a large number of categories. Thanks to this enhancement if you are using this query to search more than 1500 categories with up to five levels of nested subcategories, you will notice a significant performance improvement. Magento is indeed scalable

As part of its commitment to inclusivity, Magento has been working towards ensuring by 2025 companies must comply with the European Accessibility Act, which states that all covered products and services needs to be accessible. E-commerce is among the sectors covered by this act

In every release, there are new accessibility features added in Magento, these are the ones from the 2.4.6 release:

• Proceed to Checkout, Review Order, and Place Order buttons in the checkout workflow now work as expected with keyboard input.
• Proceed to Checkout, Review Order, and Place Order buttons in the checkout workflow now work as expectedseamlessly with keyboard input.
• Visual indication of focus on buttons when using TAB or SHIFT + TAB to navigate through page controls has been improved.

Magento has made several updates to improve the accessibility of its platform, particularly for individuals with disabilities. Screen readers can now announce:

• The screen reader for the order history page now reads the correct image description.
• Total item count found in search results
• Logged-in user’s name when they successfully sign in using keyboard controls
• Product search result page header now reads the correct value for the <title> elemeCorrect reading of the value for the <title> element in the product search result page heade
• Whether input fields are required
• Correct current state of accordion elements (collapsed and expanded)
• When the user clicks the Create an account button and the page content refreshes

Other than all the mentioned highlights, Magento there has also been made bug-fixes and enhancements added to the following areas:

Bundle products
Cache
Cart and checkout
Cart price rule
Catalog
Configurable products
Coupons
Cron
Currency
Email
Frameworks
General fixes
GraphQL
Google ReCAPTCHA
Image
Import/export
Index
Infrastructure
Order
Payment methods
Reports
Reviews
Roles
Search
Shipping
Tax
Test
Translations and locales
UI
URL rewrites
Web API framework
Wish list

As you can see, this release is packed with a significant updates with containing many  quality fixes, enhancements, and features. As always, we highly recommend you stay up to date with the latest release to enjoy all its advantages and reap all the benefits of your Magento store, providing a better experience for both you and your customers. We highly recommend merchants to stay up to date with the latest release to enjoy all the benefits of the latest version.

The full release notes can be found here.