The BuddyPress development team has released Beta 2 of BuddyPress 3.0. BuddyPress 3.0 is a major release that contains some significant changes. A new template pack called Nouveau will replace the bp-legacy template packs introduced in BuddyPress 1.7.

The new template pack has been refactored to be semantic, accessible, and use a new set of markup files. Loops, members, and activity areas now run under Backbone to provide a smoother experience. JavaScript has been rewritten to be more modular and have better structure.

BuddyPressCustomizerOptions BuddyPress 3.0 Beta 2 Released design tips
BuddyPress 3.0 Customizer Options

BuddyPress 3.0 utilizes the Customizer by providing options to manipulate the Nouveau template pack or the site itself. For example, you can modify a user’s navigation options from the frontend. There’s also an option to adjust the number of columns for the Members loop.

There are 138 tickets closed in this release. In addition to what’s noted above, 3.0 will remove support for WordPress 4.3 and below and BuddyPress functions for bbPress 1.x forums will be deprecated.

Considering the scope and breadth of changes in 3.0, users are highly encouraged to test BuddyPress 3.0 Beta 2. If you encounter any issues, please report them in the Troubleshooting and How-to section of the support forums.