Figma September 2026: The Updates That Really Simplify Your Workflow
Every month Figma releases new features, but not every update is something you notice right away. September’s is. At first glance these updates look like separate pieces that each stand on their own, but for anyone looking closer, they point in the same direction: there is less and less manual work between designing and turning that design into a working product in code. For web designers like us, the gains come in two areas: less hassle when converting to code, and ever more ways to collaborate.
Small updates you can use right away
Community riffs
Riffs are lightweight assets such as frames, images and videos, illustrations, Make prototypes and more. You can share your own Riffs on the Figma Community page to inspire others, or get inspired yourself by the daily refreshed feed. It doesn’t stop there: you can also import Riffs into your own Figma Design files and start working with them. This feature is fully included in free Figma.
Folder previews
Folders in Figma have received a small update so you can tell them apart at a glance. The thumbnail immediately shows what’s in the files, and the folder colors are more varied. You can now also duplicate folders and their contents, which is handy when you want to experiment with existing designs without the risk of accidentally losing everything. The new folder preview update is also available for free to all users on every Figma plan.
Weave tools
Weave tools bring generative AI workflows directly into the Figma canvas. You can even build and publish your own Weave tool, fully tailored to your workflow. From editing images to generating unique shaders: anything is possible. We’ve already tested it ourselves and used the Figma Agent to build a tool that generates smooth, organic gradients. Really cool!
From design to website: the updates that really save time
At Websters, we mainly work with Figma Design and its core features. These also regularly get a major update, and that one can be game-changing for simplifying our workflow.
Figma Motion: Lottie exports
Motion has matured considerably in this release. You get from your first keyframe to a finished animation that’s ready for handoff more quickly.
Custom animation styles make motion repeatable. You can save an animation style with your own easing, duration and other variable-based properties, and apply it across all your designs. Styles can be combined into richer animations and saved as a single pattern. By publishing them to your libraries, every file works from the same foundation. You can even have them applied automatically via the Figma agent and coding agents, using MCP or Skills.
Audio comes to the timeline. Drag an audio file onto a motion clip or timeline, then trim, split and move it relative to your keyframes until the timing is right. When exporting, the audio is included in MP4 and WebM formats.
More control over text animations. You can animate individual characters, words or lines within a text layer. The text remains fully editable after the animation has been applied.
Export as Lottie. Supported animations can now be exported as Lottie or dotLottie files. This makes it much easier to bring animations from Figma to a website or app.
For web designers, that last step is the most interesting one. You no longer need to rebuild the animations you design yourself or explain them to a developer: you export them and they’re ready to use.
Collaborations
In September there were two updates around collaboration within Figma. They make working with others on the same project easier and more user-friendly.
The mobile app received a UI update for smoother use. A page dropdown lets you quickly switch between pages, and the frame preview slider lets you flip through your frames at lightning speed. You can now also share the link to the exact page you’re working on with one click on “Share”. Exporting frames and slides is also possible on mobile, so you can share with others even faster.
In addition, since the latest update, multiple GitHub organizations can be linked to a single Figma plan. This is very handy when several parties work on one project. Say you’re collaborating with a business partner who contributes to part of the project: you can now link more than one GitHub organization.
Conclusion
Figma’s September updates together tell one clear story: less friction between idea, design and end product. Motion lets you reuse animations, add sound to them and export them as Lottie. The collaboration updates make teamwork more flexible, including on the go and across organizations. And with Riffs, folder previews and Weave tools, you get some extra inspiration and convenience on top.
For us as web designers, that mainly means one thing: more time for creative work and less time for repetitive work. We’re curious what the next release will bring!
