Figma Make: Visual Properties Panel & Annotations
FigmaFigma introduced a properties panel and annotations system in Figma Make, rolling out to all seats and plans rather than staying limited to a beta cohort. The properties panel gives designers familiar Figma Design controls for spacing, typography, layout, opacity, z-index, and border styles, letting them edit visually instead of writing text prompts. Annotations let users mark specific spots on the canvas with numbered callouts and describe desired changes, such as interactions or animations, giving the AI agent precise location context. Both tools stage edits credit-free in the chat panel until applied, and direct manipulation through the properties panel consumes meaningfully fewer tokens than an equivalent text prompt.
Key Takeaways
- Figma Make's properties panel brings native Figma Design-style controls (spacing, typography, layout, opacity, z-index, borders) directly into the AI app-builder, reducing reliance on text prompts for simple visual tweaks.
- The annotations tool lets users mark numbered focus areas on the canvas and describe intent in place, giving the AI agent precise location context for interaction and animation changes.
- Direct property edits are more credit-efficient than text prompts because they hand the agent an exact target instead of requiring it to search and infer intent.
- Both editing tools stage changes credit-free in the chat panel, so users can review a batch of edits before any credits are spent applying them.
- The rollout marks a shift from beta to general availability: similar visual-editing and annotation concepts were previously piloted in May 2026's macOS-only, GitHub-connected Local Code beta, and are now available to all Figma Make seats and plans.
- A key rollout constraint is that the properties panel only works on newly created Make designs; existing designs keep using Figma Make's older editing tool until recreated.
Overview
Figma Make, the company's AI-powered app-building surface, gained two new editing capabilities on July 30, 2026: a properties panel and an annotations tool. Announced by Phillip Wang, Director of Product Management at Figma, the update is aimed at closing the gap between prompting an AI agent and directly manipulating a design, giving Figma Make users more precise, visual ways to steer changes without relying entirely on natural-language prompts.
Properties Panel: Familiar Controls, Less Guesswork
The properties panel brings the same visual editing controls found in Figma Design into Figma Make. Users can select any element on the canvas and adjust its spacing, typography, layout, opacity, z-index, and border styles directly, without writing a prompt to describe the change. According to Figma, direct manipulation through the properties panel is also more efficient from a token-usage standpoint: it gives the underlying AI agent "a precise target, instead of the searching and guesswork a text prompt requires," which translates into fewer credits consumed per edit compared to an equivalent text-based instruction.
Annotations: Contextual Prompting for Complex Changes
For changes that go beyond simple properties, such as interactions or animations, Figma Make now supports annotations. Users mark a focus area directly on the canvas with a numbered callout and describe what they want changed, for example "make this section feel calmer." Annotations can reference multiple elements at once, giving the AI agent richer contextual information than an isolated text prompt would provide. This positions annotations as a middle ground between fully manual property editing and freeform chat-based prompting.
Credit Model and Staging
Edits made through both the properties panel and annotations stage inside the chat panel without consuming credits. Credits are only charged once a user applies the staged edits, giving designers room to experiment and review a batch of changes before committing to them.
Availability and Limitations
The properties panel and annotations are rolling out now to all Figma Make users across every seat and plan, marking a shift from the earlier, narrower beta of similar editing concepts that Figma piloted with its Local Code integration in May 2026. One notable limitation: the properties panel currently only works with newly created Figma Make designs. Any design created before this rollout will continue to use Figma Make's previous editing tool until it is recreated.