Robert Bye reflects on his first full year at the new Figma Native apps team and how much their desktop, iPad, and phone apps have changed in 2022

Never miss a beat in Figma or FigJam with notifications. Now available on iOS, Android, or desktop.

When you open a new tab in the desktop app you'll now see your recent files, making it easier to pick up where you left off.

Nice update to the desktop app making it easy to pick up where you left off.

Stay in the loop on notifications when you’re in the desktop app, with a new notification bell that lives in your menu bar. Install or update the beta app to the latest version.

Tabs now show new Figma, FigJam, and prototype favicons. Using an emoji in the file name automatically updates the default icon. Tabs also can be pinned to the left side of the tab bar or dragged out of the existing window to create a new one (super useful for keeping an actual-size preview while working zoomed in).

Dan Hollick explains why colors in Figma can be different from the colors found on the web. Personally, I usually keep the Figma desktop app in sRGB color space to avoid surprises, only switching to Unmanaged for specific tasks.

The developer of the popular Mac app iStat Menus tested how various design tools utilize the hardware they’re running on. For Figma, GPU seems to be more important than CPU, while memory is not a big factor as usage is limited to 2GB per tab. Good to know if you’re getting a new Mac but not sure about the config.

Figma made the tab keyboard shortcuts in the desktop app more intuitive. Press ⌘1 on Mac, Ctrl+1 on Windows to open the file browser, and ⌘2, 3, 4 or Ctrl+2, 3, 4 to open subsequent tabs.

Figma desktop app is now officially optimized for M1 Macs. (Used to be only the beta app.)

Figma Beta app update I’ve been waiting for! So far, it’s really fast and works great on my M1 laptop.