Our team is having a problem. Now that dev mode is out of beta ( ) most functionality has been removed from the inspect/properties panel.
This is a very drastic change and one that unfortunately, doesn’t seem to have been communicated clearly by Figma.
As a smaller agency, we are certainly considering the new dev mode. However, it is quite a challenge for us to lose a key (and free) feature we’ve been relying on for many years overnight without a clear heads up.
But we want to assume the best. Maybe we are just missing something. Any help or clarification would be much appreciated!
Hey @Joseph_Barbier – hear you on this one. First, sorry for the confusion. I understand that there could’ve been more clarity in what changed (pretty quickly) with Dev Mode’s full release.
The functionality of the inspect panel still exists, albeit with changes. One of our Designer Advocates (Tom) recorded a video that shows how the experience is for free and viewer users in Figma. I’m hoping this helps with clarifying.
If you have additional feedback after viewing, feel free to drop it here. I’m making sure that these notes are being reviewed by our product teams.
@ksn Hello and thank you kindly for the reply. I appreciate @Tom_Lowry making that video to help provide clarification.
However, after reviewing that video, it still doesn’t address the real issue. All the really useful functionality that was formerly in the inspect panel (for free, for years) has been removed overnight without clear communication. In its place, we are left we a properties panel that is, for all intent and purposes, useless for our dev team.
This is surprising, honestly a bit shocking, precisely because Figma has for so long been an organization the design community felt it could trust. Our relationship with Figma has always felt like a big Win-Win. And that feeling was further contrasted with the way other design software companies (like Adobe ) seemed to do business.
Unless Figma can help clarify and offer real solutions here, what this communicates to its user-base is that it is now okay with setting up a win-loss relationship with its customers. Figma wins, customers lose. That’s the relationship dynamic that has driven users away from Adobe and I’d love to avoid that with Figma.
Hi @ksn and @Tom_Lowry – is this video, as well as any other documentation about how developers can best use the inspect functionality, hosted anywhere on Figma.com instead of X/Twitter?
This is terrible. At no point did I believe believe that Dev Mode come out of beta was going to remove all of the inspect features that were previously free.
All of these FREE Inspect features were exactly what originally made Figma so compelling to work with. It was pain free hand off without having to pay for an additional hand-off service. This old model worked so well for an industry that relies heavily on freelances developers that are not part of our organization.
The Dev Mode access should be based on the account of the OWNER of the file. Now if I want to work with Freelance developers, It’s on ME to pay for them to be inside my organization? This is not how our industry works. Our industry relies on working with many people who are not in our organization, you must understand this.
This is the biggest, and most predatory cash grab Figma has ever made. I hope you realize what an enormous error this is, and revert back. These kinds of practices are exactly what made everybody look for alternatives to Adobe. Adobe didn’t even buy you, and your culture still changed to mimic Adobe?
Lost an incredible amount of trust in Figma. Will be looking for alternatives now.
) most functionality has been removed from the inspect/properties panel. 
I appreciate 
) seemed to do business.