There were hints about split tabs for a while, and now they’re available in the beta version of the desktop app. Luis highlights some of the use cases in this thread, including keeping a prototype on the side, managing variables, iterating on designs at different zoom levels, updating local components, and many more.

Bjango, the maker of the popular apps iStat Menus and Snowflake, tests how various design tools utilize memory, what’s their baseline usage with no documents open, and how memory grows with lots of large documents open. Not surprisingly, Figma has the highest memory usage as an Electron app. ​“I believe Figma loads a full copy of the application per tab, which may be part of the cause for its high memory usage. Each tab is also limited to 2GB of RAM, leaving around 1.75 GB for the largest possible document. Put another way, if you purchased a Mac Studio with 192 GB of RAM, you could only open documents that use less than 1% of it. This is different from the other applications tested, which have access to the Mac Studio’s full 192 GB, minus whatever the system is using. Figma simultaneously uses the most overall memory of all the tools tested, while also being the most constrained.”

Is this an important update? No. But is it fun? Hell yes! The FigJam team keeps delivering the most delight per buck.

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.