Inspect a version history file

I changed your topic to #product-ideas as it is not possible now.

Hi, Arvid, you can duplicate version history to a separate file and then share it with developers.

Hi Rudel,

yes, however it is a bit inconvenient to create multiple files and can lead to confusion amongst devs as well as to what the current source of truth is which I would still very much like to see it implemented directly in the version history.

But, yes, as a workaround this works. Thanks!

Hi @Arvid, if you have an Organization’s plan, you can participate in beta testing branches. Thus, you can work on a new version in one branch, and send a link to Main to the developers.

https://help.figma.com/hc/en-us/articles/360063144053-Create-branches-and-merge-changes

even if there is now the branching feature, it would definitely still make sense if you could link a version as dev handover and inspecting would be still possible

My (readonly) devs too want to be able to see previous versions of the file (“we want to check how this dialog was before…”). What’s the rationale for stopping them from a viewing a particular version, given that they can edit anyway, what can go wrong?

Perhaps the need is to control how much of the history the guest (your devs) can see, versus which versions you want to hide from them?

Yeah, for my team this would be very helpful as well. I think it is a simple UI thing, that While I am looking at a version History I mandatory select the “Hand”-Tool, with that I can not inspect. and has the Inspect and Version History are on the same location, only one can be shown at the time.

An idea would be to include Version History as a Tab on the right panel. Then you could switch between inspect and Version History.

I also don’t understand why, Figma’s clearly loading everything so at the very least let us inspect it directly without the illy workarounds of branches or duplicates. The whole point is to want access to something “frozen in time”.

Chiming in again here. For my team this would help us establish trust with our development team and save us process around multiple files

Agreed, we have to find workarounds to “freeze” designs for them.

Is there already a solution for this feature?

As a dev, I am exploring options to receive “frozen” versions with inspectable elements while design continues to iterate for future versions. We have access to branching, but then when that is eventually approved/merged into main, it sounds like our historic jira artifacts will not be able to inspect past elements?

It sounds like the current hack is to clone the “frozen” version, is that what people are still doing?