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What’s new in Figma: August 2021 | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

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Figma’s August 2021 updates focus on faster workflows, more flexible customization, and easier design-system management. The company expanded its plugin ecosystem into FigJam, improved the Figma plugin API, and introduced tools for moving, swapping, and finding components. Smaller usability improvements also addressed common frustrations in both products.

Plugins and Widgets for FigJam

  • FigJam gained support for:
    • Plugins, which automate tasks such as organizing sticky notes, customizing styles, and importing data.
    • Widgets, interactive canvas objects for polls, voting, games, notepads, and other collaborative activities.
  • Plugins are accessible to users on every plan.
  • Developers can create plugins with basic HTML and JavaScript, while widgets can be built with React.
  • Widgets were initially offered through a private beta.

Expanded Figma Plugin API

  • Plugins can now write to prototypes, enabling developers to:
    • Automate prototype creation.
    • Modify interactions in bulk.
    • Improve prototyping workflows without manual repetition.
  • Plugin parameters let users provide input through quick actions, avoiding the need for custom plugin interfaces.
  • Plugin parameters were released in open beta, with examples available through Figma’s plugin samples.

Easier Design-System Maintenance

Three component-management improvements make it simpler to scale and reorganize design systems:

  • Move components: Published components and component sets can be moved between files without breaking instance links.
  • Swap libraries: Entire style and component libraries can be replaced at once instead of updated individually.
  • Search components: Pressing Shift + I opens a shortcut for quickly locating components.

Usability Improvements

  • Transparent objects now automatically knock out shadows behind them, reducing the need for manual adjustments.
  • Holding Shift while using the pencil tool constrains lines to straight paths in both Figma and FigJam.
  • Additional bug fixes and improvements were documented in Figma’s release notes.

Together, these updates make Figma and FigJam more extensible, collaborative, and efficient—particularly for teams managing large design systems or automating repetitive design and prototyping tasks.