Back in 2017, the Figma team promised a native Mac app was on its way. Two years later, we’re still waiting. Why?
The Figma team has been working hard to bring its popular design tool to the Mac platform. However, the native Mac app is still nowhere to be seen. Why is this taking so long?
One of the main reasons for the delay is that Figma is built using Electron, a framework that allows developers to create cross-platform apps using web technologies. Electron apps are notoriously difficult to port to macOS, due to the different ways that macOS and Windows handle keystrokes, window management, and other system-level interactions.
Figma is a vector graphics editor and prototyping tool – and it doesn’t currently have an official Mac app. However, there are a few ways to use Figma on a Mac.
First, you can use the web app at https://www.figma.com. This will work in any browser, including Safari, Chrome, and Firefox.
Second, you can use the Figma Desktop app for Windows. To do this, you’ll need to install Windows on your Mac using Boot Camp or another virtualization tool like Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion.
Finally, there are a few unofficial Electron-based Figma apps for macOS, such as Figmate and Figma Desktop. These are not made or endorsed by Figma, but they may be worth trying if you can’t use the web app or don’t want to install Windows.
Note that using Figma on a Mac may not be as smooth as using the official Windows app – so your mileage may vary.
Figma’s developers are well aware of these challenges, and they’re working hard to overcome them. In the meantime, they’ve released a beta version of Figma for macOS that runs in a web browser. This gives Mac users access to all of Figma’s features, albeit with a few minor compromises.
So while we wait for the native Mac app, the beta version is a perfectly good substitute. It may not be as polished as the Windows app, but it’s still a powerful design tool that’s more than capable of getting the job done.
Conclusion:
It looks like we’ll have to wait a little while longer for a native Figma app on macOS. In the meantime, the beta web app is a perfectly good substitute.
