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What's new in Figma: Spring 2025 updates
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1. Navigation Changes
One of the most noticeable updates in Figma is the refreshed navigation bar. But this isn't just a visual cleanup - it introduces entirely new modes that redefine how you work inside the tool. You now have: Draw Mode, Design Mode, and Dev Mode.
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1.1. Draw mode - Sketch freely, stay in Vector
Draw mode is one of the most exciting additions for designers who love freehand expression. You now have access to three draw types:
Pen tool: Works by plotting vector points - ideal for precise illustrations and shapes
Brush tool: Offers around 50 different brush styles, ranging from calligraphic stroke to texture-heave brushes. You can easily adjust stroke thickness. The best part? What you draw freely is automatically converted to vector points, giving you the flexibility of sketching with the structure of vectors.
Pencil tool: Already familiar to many, the pencil remains available for more casual, continuous freehand drawing
These new options makes Figma feel more like a creative canvas, bridging the gap between illustration and interface design.
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1.2. Switching modes, simplified
The mode switcher - now placed cleanly on the right of the toolbar - makes it easy to hop between Design, Draw, and Dev. Each mode with its own contextual tools.
1.3. Additional options in Auto Layout
Auto Layout has been a favorite for responsive design in Figma, and now it's getting even more powerful. New layout options are now accessible directly from the sidebar, which itself got a slight reorganization to accommodate the new features.
And on top of all of it - Layers thumbnails have made their way into the Layers panel. This small but mighty update lets you instantly identify what's what in your file, reducing guesswork.
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2. Auto Layout: More control with Grid and Freeform
Figma's Auto Layout just got a serious upgrade. While Auto Layout has always been great for building responsive and scalable UI, it's now much more flexible thanks to the addition of two new layout modes: Grid and Freeform.
2.1. Grid: Structured, two-dimensional Layouts
The new Grid options allows you to place objects in a structured, two-dimensional layout. Unlike the traditional one-directional stacking in Auto Layout, Grid lets you design in both rows and columns.
This is especially useful when creating:
Image galleries or media grids
Card-based layouts
Clean overview or data displays
With precise control over gaps, alignment, and distribution, Grid mode helps you create consistent, polished layouts without workarounds.
2.2. Freeform: Flexibility within structure
With Freeform, you can freely position elements inside an Auto Layout frame while still retaining the benefits of layout rules. It feels a bit like grouping or framing objects, but now baked into Auto Layout itself.
Perfect for:
Playful compositions
Asymmetrical layouts
Overlapping elements
Together, Grid and Freeform open up a whole new level of control for designers.
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3. Figma Draw
With Figma Draw, expressive illustration tools just got a serious upgrade. Let's walk through the five biggest updates.
3.1. Brushes: From rough sketch to polished stroke
As we already know, Draw Mode introduces three brush types: the Pen, the Brush, and the Pencil. The Pen gives you anchor-point precision, the Brush offers over 50 expressive textures, and the Pencil lets you sketch freely. But the real power comes after drawing.
Everly line you draw is editable, and now you can fine-tune it even further with new stroke settings:
Dynamic: adjust frequency, wiggle, and smoothness for a more organic feel
Brush: Control the style of the stroke beyond just weight - now it's texture and motion too. Even better? You can apply these brush effects to more than just shapes. Try them on cards, buttons, or even typography for a handcrafted vibe.
3.2. New vector settings: Shape editing, reimagined
Enter vector editing mode (just hit Enter on you keyboard when a shape is selected), and you'll see two powerful new tools appear in your toolbar:
Shape Builder: Combining, subtracting, or intersecting shapes has never been easier. Drag overlapping areas together to merge, or subtract one shape from another with a single click. it's like illustrator's Pathfinder - but native in Figma, smoother, and more fun to use.
Lasso: select points or paths by simply drawing around them. Ideal for batch-editing things like corner radius or moving parts of a shape at once.
3.3. Pattern Fills: endless possibilities
Beyond solid fills and gradients, Figma now supports Pattern Fills. You can create your own patterns, or use images as repeating sources. Once applied, pattern scale and repeat beautifully inside.
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3.4. Fills & Effects: Texture, noise & progressive blur
Textures, noise, and blur effects are now native to vector shapes. A new progressive blur allows you to create soft transitions that feel more natural.
3.5. Text on path: finally!
You can now attach text directly to a path. Whether it's wrapping a circle, curving along a wave, or tracing the edge of a custom shape - it's all doable and editable.
3.6. Transform & Rotation: Radial magic
The new Transform options let you repeat shapes radially or linearly. Add to that the Rotation Around Anchor Points: you can now rotatie shapes based on a movable anchor, giving you control over spin, symmetry, and layout rhythm.
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4. Figma Sites
Design. Build. Publish - all inside Figma. Figma Sites is one of the most exciting reveals from Config 2025, and it's a true game-changer. For the first time, Figma lets you design and publish fully responsive websites without leaving the tool - no dev hand-off needed.
4.1. Start your site your way
You can either begin with a fully editable template - and Figma offers a lot of them - or ga for a blank canvas. Even blank sites come packed with pre-built blocks like nav bars, hero sections, forms, and footers. All of them are responsive by default and 100% customizable.
Want to stay on-brand? You can plug in your own components and styling using design system libraries. Remember to make sure that the components need to be responsive.
4.2. One click, three views
Here's the magic: Figma sites automatically generates views for desktop, tables and mobile - with a single click. And it's not just scaling - it's real responsiveness.
Change text, color, spacing or block order on desktop? it syncs across all devices
Want to tweak the mobile layout? Go ahead - mobile changes stay local.
The result: fully responsive design, without repetitive work.
4.3. Interaction built right in
Websites don't just sit still. Figma Sites supports hover states, scroll parallax, micro-interactions, and full-blown animations - straight from the editor. Animate text, buttons, cursors, even entire sections - all with native tools.
4.4. Publish in a heartbeat
Once you're happy with your site, choose your site title and hit publish. That's it.
4.5. Figma Make
This one's wild: Figma Make is an AI-powered tool that transforms prompts and Figma designs into working prototypes, web apps, and interactive user interfaces. It enables you to brainstorm, refine, and enhance your projects through natural conversation.
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5. Figma Buzz
Figma Buzz is Figma's answer to Canva - a powerful new space to create, customize, and reuse branded assets like social media posts, flyers, business cards, and more.
4.1. Templates for every occasion
Whether you want to start from scratch or pick from a growing library of ready-made templates, Buzz makes it easy. Once your template is ready, publish it and use it across your team - or across different files.
Wrapping it up
With all these exciting updates, it's clear that Figma is no longer just a design tool -- it's becoming a complete creation platform. The boundaries between design, development, and content creation continue to blur. The wall between teams is crumbling - and what's replacing it is collaboration, flexibility, and speed.
Curious to explore these features yourself or upskill your team? We also offer tailored Figma workshops and training sessions to help you get the most out of the tool.
Let's talk -we'd love to hear from you.