RTC should live as a Canonical plugin.

[jayclydeTags]

Not everyone needs it.

A solo blogger, a freelancer managing client sites, a small business owner — none of them will ever use real-time collaboration. Shipping it in core means every WordPress install carries code that the majority of users will never touch.

It's complex infrastructure.

Real-time sync requires WebSockets or similar persistent connections, conflict resolution logic, presence indicators, and operational transformation or CRDT algorithms. That's a significant maintenance burden on core for a feature that serves a subset of users. A canonical plugin can move faster, iterate independently, and not hold back core releases.

Breadth of need

Team-dependent

Foundational importance

Workflow layer