Figma unveiled a significant update on Wednesday, introducing a novel code layer, enhanced support for motion graphics and shaders, and the capability to generate custom plugins for diverse functionalities through artificial intelligence.
The design platform has consistently pursued deeper code integration within its ecosystem. This commitment was evident last year with the introduction of Figma Make, an AI prompt-based prototyping tool, followed by strategic integrations with Claude Code and Codex, all aimed at streamlining the transition between design and development workflows.
Building on this, Figma is now embedding code layers directly onto its collaborative canvas. This innovation empowers teams to effortlessly clone repositories and extract specific code flows, transforming them into design layers for rigorous testing and iteration.
According to Yuhki Yamashita, Figma’s Chief Product Officer, these code layers are designed to simplify the iterative process for designers, product managers, and programmers. He emphasized that the focus shifts from crafting production-ready code to rapidly exploring and refining ideas.
Yamashita further elaborated during a call, stating, “We think the multiplayer canvas is really powerful because this is an environment where you don’t really care about the quality of the code. If you’re rapidly exploring or need to kind of explore a bunch of new directions, you can do that in this spatial way. We hope that this feature produces different behaviour not just with designers, but also with engineers and PMs.”
Furthermore, Figma has expanded its capabilities to natively support animations, transitions, and 3D transforms. This marks a significant improvement, as designers previously needed to create these elements in external software and then convert them into a format Figma could interpret. Now, animations and transitions can be seamlessly integrated directly within the Figma environment.
Complementing these advancements, artificial intelligence can now be leveraged to generate various assets, with the update also extending AI support to include the creation of shader effects and fills.
Last year, Figma acquired Weavy, a node-based tool that enabled designers to execute workflows across various models for output comparison. Figma is actively working towards a deeper integration of these two applications, with a forthcoming update later this year that will allow users to generate Weavy workflows directly within Figma.
The company is also enhancing its AI assistant with new capabilities, making it more intuitive and effective within the collaborative canvas. Users can now define repeatable skills for AI agents by simply writing text prompts. Additionally, the AI bot's contextual understanding can be enriched by connecting it to popular tools such as Notion, Granola, Excel, and GitHub, or by attaching relevant files.
Furthermore, Figma is introducing a feature that facilitates the creation of custom plugins, such as layout generators or vector path tracers, through intuitive prompts.
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