Branching in Figma: A Sandbox for Design Exploration

Figma has introduced branching in beta for its Organization plan. The feature gives designers a contained space to experiment and iterate on shared files without risking unapproved changes to the main design. The announcement follows last week's Config 2021 keynote, where Figma outlined broader efforts to support collaboration across the entire design process.

Branching is designed to address a specific pain point that emerged as design systems scaled across organizations. Teams told Figma that their design systems were often scattered across multiple platforms and teams. While components were being reused effectively, inconsistency crept in because source files lived in different places. Teams needed a way to centralize design systems while protecting them at scale.

Consider the Netflix Hawkins system, which more than 100 designers contribute to and depend on. With that many contributors, the latest edits to a file aren't necessarily the version approved for use. Branching creates room for designers to explore new ideas without auto-saving those explorations directly into the shared file.

Simplicity Over Process

Figma's approach to building branching began with a first-principles question: how do you create a sandbox in Figma without adding complexity? Early ideas, like commits and nested branches, felt like unnecessary overhead. The team discarded them in favor of two guiding principles: simplicity and consistency.

That direction led to branching being built as an integral part of Figma's multiplayer experience. Branches behave like any other Figma file, with the same real-time collaboration features. There are no extra steps—no commit actions—because work on a branch is auto-saved just like any other Figma file. Editors can create a branch from any file, explore safely, and merge changes back into the main file when they're ready.

This is an early step in a longer exploration of how versioning should work across the platform. Figma is considering how branching and multiplayer fit into a single, unified way of thinking about versions as it continues to build out features like file reviews.

Beta Access and Next Steps

Branching is now rolling out in beta to Organization plan users. Access is being granted gradually, and teams can request to join the waitlist. Figma is also hosting a deep-dive session where the feature will be demonstrated and workflows discussed.