Thoughts

Will Figma work on an iPad?

by Erik Briones | March 9, 2020

I asked that same question to myself a while ago. Will Figma work on an iPad or tablet? Is it a good set up or workflow to do your creative stuff on a mobile-ish device? Those questions got me researching the possibility of creating designs in Figmale from a mobile phone or a tablet.

I have scoured the Figma spectrum chat/forum for hints and if anyone has successfully done this. The closest I have read there is that some people were able to – using Chrome and on an Android device.

The most detailed setup and usage I came across then was from this post by Avi Barel – https://medium.com/startux-net/creative-people-ux-ui-fed-the-future-is-now-6095a7a1440c.

From the post, he mentioned he is using a Samsung Galaxy Note, with something called DeX. I am guessing this is some kind of Workspace or Emulator of a desktop while he was able to connect it with a mouse and keyboard plus a monitor. Pretty much replacing a PC with a Samsung phone which for me is very neat.

Do you know what I did? I went to a Samsung store in a mall near my house and tried it. Like I opened a Samsung tablet first, and opened Chrome and logged in with my Figma account. Yes logged in on a public, show/test device in a store. I made sure to log out of it though. Well.

Then I tried one of the Samsung Galaxy phones, and there the sales person told me and described to me what is DeX. When I am on the Samsung DeX “environment” and open Figma from the browser, Figma is assuming I am on a proper desktop and renders the fully usable Figma interface.

However, due to the lack of external display then and the peripherals, I was not very happy with the experience. The best device for me I think would be the iPad/iPad Pro. There you will have enough space for the left panels as well as the right with the drawing area space not compromised.

As of this writing the best review and sort of walkthrough I can find regarding using Figma on an iPad is this Youtube video from designer Sean Conolly of Crema.

He has also done a previous video, but this one is the most updated and more in-depth. He clearly mentioned what works, and what doesn’t.

Do check it out, and let me know what you think. Do you think it is worth it to invest in an iPad and do your creative designs in Figma on an iPad?

For me, at the moment it is still too early. Not until the moving around, the drawing rectangles, etc are as snappy and as accurate as in the Desktop version, I would not move to this setup just yet.

That’s great. So while the good people at Figma are developing a more reliable version for iPad or any tablet. I have time to save up for an iPad Pro. A normal iPad would be nice and pretty much suffice I believe, however I am keen to use the Apple Pencil 2 – where for the iPad, as of writing, only the Apple Pencil 1 works.