Provide ability to prevent updates from automatically appearing in prototypes after sharing them externally

The way we work around this is to create a page called “Active Prototype” in the file, and copy-paste the prototype to that page. That way we know not to touch it when theres a test live.

It’s also a good idea to detach all the components used in that prototype. So that you don’t accidentally update a component in the prototype.

You may also want to change the thumbnail of your file, put a big badge on it that lets your teammates know “Hey we’re testing this at the moment, don’t go changing thing”

Thanks @Finch

We’ve done that but don’t like to break components (you lose all their benefits)

My best solution is to create an “Active Prototype” calling Artboards from another page as components but you’ve to create manually under-frame if you want to have “scroll to…” links working.

I was hoping for a classical way like “Push to prototype” a bit like Invision

Yeah I get you! If you could share a prototype pinned to a specific document version that would be great.

You could always post a suggestion here Product Ideas - Figma Support Forum

I can suggest a different approach. Whenever you work on a live prototype you can unlink the main connection which starts the prototype and maybe use an “Under Construction” page. When you finish all the changes you re-connect the prototype. You need to know that at the time of construction no-one is viewing the presentation.

Have done that too 🙂 but in a less hardcore style. I place a big red overlay “WIP” on certain screens.
But I still find that having a push system is better.

what i do is just move the blue play button to a duplication of the frame and then work as much as i want on the designs. when i decide it’s time to show the client then i move the play button back

Hi @Farah_Abdelwahab
I know this trick, and I’m interested to see if I missed something…

• If you do not link a new screen it will not appear. Right ?
→ This solves the problem for new screens

• If your prototype have more than 10 screens linked together, removing the play button from the first starting frame will avoid your client to use the whole prototype. Right ?
→ That’s not what I want

• If you duplicate the first frame and attach the play button to the duplicate one
→ your method works (I’ll keep it in mind 😀)

But… what if you have to modify things in the other screens of the prototype but don’t want to show it right now… and however let the client see the prototype ?
Have you a hack with the play button that I didn’t understand ?
Do you change all the interactions to jump over the screens being modified ?

Some parts of your prototype will carry over if you duplicate your frames. This depends on if you work more with components or frames though. If you have Component A inside Frame A that navigates (or wtv) to Frame B - when you duplicate Frame A the component inside should still be linked to Frame B. However if you just have a group or Auto Layout in Frame A linking to Frame B, if you duplicate Frame A it won’t keep the interaction.

I suggest a plug-in like Master to help you in case you realise some parts of your designs should be components later in the process.

There are also plugins like Prototype Exporter which might be helpful in your specific case. You can export the prototype you’re happy for the client to see without needing to worry about them seeing your updates live. Although I know some features don’t translate super well on Prototype Exporter so it depends on you and your use case.

Hope this helps! ☺

@Finch Do you know a way to quickly detach all instances in a page? CTRL + A and right click “detach instance” did not work. Nested instances did not get detached.

I created a feature request here: Feature request: Make it easy to keep a prototype/page in a specific version

Please vote for it.

Hi, I believe this topic has been asked from thousands of users already as this is a really important feature that everyone asked for.

I’m using Invision for prototyping tool so far, but nothing can compare the features of Figma as it is easy to add interaction, linkage and the animations…etc. However the prototype link will reflex the update from Figma changes directly which really confuse the client when we shared the link with them and they see the update in progress.

So could you please release a feature that the prototype link will only update on demand, so the viewer will only see the update when we click the “Publish” button.

Everyone will need this feature, but this is really a huge blocker that stop everyone moving from other prototyping tools to Figma.