Global live library sharing

Live libraries are now “siloed” to the space they are published in, in both ways, you can’t “subscribe” or share.

Thanks for reporting the workaround, it is likely a bug, and not very practical for large user bases.

The workaround I described earlier doesn’t in fact give you live updates or use analytics. You need to republish the original file every time there’s an update, and restore links using “swap libraries”.

@Gleb good call, I changed the topic.

I had a confirmation from support that the “feature” was accidental and now disabled.

This seems to have changed recently (in the past two months, maybe?) and has now broken our process for sharing our team library. Until recently, anyone could add our component library to their drafts. Now it seems the only way for someone to add our library is if we give them edit access to the library, which of course is not what we want to do, since the consumers of the library are not supposed to be able to edit it.

This seems like a major limitation to the way Figma can be used and definitely makes it a less useful platform for a design system.

Lates feedback from Figma support team, I guess the support team didn’t know this new feature:

we’ve made a change with how library sharing works. In order for a user to use a library, they’ll either need Edit access to the library, or they’ll need to be explicitly invited to the library as a viewer (they cannot be added to the library as a viewer via link — it must be an explicit invitation)

I guess send invitation means type the user’s email then click the [send invite] button in the share window, I asked the support team if there’s other way to send an invitation and let’s waiting for the reply.

It would be crazy if free & open source library author have to invite every user need to use their library.

If Figma really want to change the way of library share, they should add a new way but not disable the old one. And the author can choose the way they need.

1. Free to public: anyone can add library when visit the original file
2. Invite only: users have to send request to add the library or author can invite users to add the library, visit original file doesn’t work anymore.
3. Collaboration: get edit access and build the library together even not in the same team.

If library author choose invite only, users can see another button next to [ask for edit], maybe an [ask to link] button, then system send a message to author and they can just approve it.

I really don’t like this new [change] since there’s no [official announcement ] about it and it’s really not good for the community.

Update from Figma support team

Only users with explicit access to a library can actually invite others explicitly

So we can ask friends who already added the library to invite us…

I tried invite myself btw( input my email in the share window) and sometime works sometime failed 😛 When I failed(I guess it’s because the library is not free open-source) there is a new guest account appear in my account dropdown menu and I’m trying to remove it 😅…（update: leave the team option is in the setting menu）

This is such a dumb restriction. I wish Figma focused on creating important features instead of taking away the existing useful ones.

You are right antonine.
We should all use global live library sharing because it is very helpful. For live example you can check out boardersguide an online library for paddle boards.

1. Currently, when a file is shared to Figma community, one of the two buttons above file preview is “Duplicate”, which acts similar to GitHub’s “Fork” and creates a copy of the file for the individual user. For a design system, “Duplicate” is a problematic call-to-action. We want to prevent duplication, which disconnect users from the system, and instead encourage using or installing the system’s original file. Can we disable “Duplicate” button, or replace with “Start using” or “Install”?

2. See the blue “Duplicate” button on top right of the page, next to “Like”
   

   

3. I’m curious if:
   a: Other design system maintainers have the same concern?
   b: Is Figma going to consider allowing alternative call-to-action button for Design System files?

An idea: instead of “Duplicate”, maybe “Save” or “Bookmark” instead. And the bookmarked files will show up near the top in the “Library” modal when you go back to the Figma designing interface.

Need this!

I work as an external designer for a company which has their own Figma design library that they want to share with me so I can consume their components in my work. My Figma account is within my designstudios organization.

My client have given me an “explicit invitation” to view. It was sent as an email to me.
With this link I can open the library in Figma BUT I can’t access the library through assets libraries…

So even with this latest info from Figma that you should be able to use a shared library in your own organization… its not working

This is really bad in my opinion 🥲