Disable 'observe' mode

Hi, just wondering if there is any way to stop other users from ‘observing’ me - there is nothing more irritating than knowing your every move is being watched. Can this feature be turned off? Thanks

If you are distracted by cursors moving around the file, you can disable them: View → Multiplayer cursors. However this doesn’t hide your cursor to others and they can still observe your actions. Just don’t think about them. 🙂

Thanks for the reply. But surely this is a valid product request - to not want someone to be virtually standing over your shoulder watching you. Impossible to get any work done this way, I’m sure a lot of users agree - can you make it something the file owner can turn on/off?

Ok will do. If you’ve ever tried to design something (or do any work for that matter) with people looking over your shoulder, you would understand! This is the digital version of that, and very annoying unless you specifically are trying to demonstrate something to someone. It means people can watch you work without your consent - so the only way to get rid of them is to remove their permissions on the file.

When I have freelance projects I have one file for myself and one for the client and I always work on my file and move it to the client side when it’s done. This is my way of turning it off. I can recommend it if it’s possible for you.

plus 1

And… ONE more !
Where do we vote for it ?

You can vote for it here - Disable 'observe' mode - theres a button at the top.

Why would you share the file until you want people seeing your progress?

Usually I’m working on files with lots of pages - so several people can be working on different things. ‘Observe Mode’ is literally the digital equivalent of someone looking over your shoulder watching your every move while you design. Very off-putting & I usually just stop what I’m doing when I realise someone is observing.

Most of the time people have just the file open. And no, this is NOT the digital equivalent of designing with someone over your shoulder.

The replies here are very dismissive of how @Dave2 works. He might work in a very different way to you. I’m not sure “I don’t understand why you need this” should be a reply from a moderator in the “Product Questions” section? @Gleb

Personally, I completely understand Dave’s problem, if a file has been shared with the client for review and then you do further work on that file the client can, if they choose, literally watch you work.

Completely disagree. This IS the digital equivalent of designing with someone over your shoulder. If not this, then what is??

100% disagree, I’ve been through several occasions of real-time pixel pushing by C-levels and also micromanaging. Very toxic feature.

I would like to understand the issue better, so I’m wondering:

1. Why don’t you work in drafts to avoid this?

2. If they required something like this, won’t they require you to share your screen while doing work if Figma’s multiplayer didn’t exist?

3. How do you see the “multiplayerless” mode working?

Hey Gleb, I’m sorry for replying late, I just posted more details on Josh’s reply here: Multiplayer mode and emotional triggers

1. The thing is that the feature is being used as a way to follow a real-time online presence. People know about the draft mode, but they’ll just ask you to use a shared file.

2. This always happens with designers during their work, the “looking over your shoulder” thing. I can’t remember an occasion that I had to live-share my computer screen back when I used desktop applications.

3. There are a few interesting ideas in the link above.

I really appreciate your reply and for sharing this 🙂

this message translate, sorry for bad English 🤭

This feature should come.
As a ui developer, while working without looking at my e-mails and messages, they feel the need to establish a dialogue with me because I appear active on the figma and sometimes the time does not matter for the caller.
I don’t want to be disturbed because I appear online in figma while working late.

Totally worth feature. I’m developer and I work along with designers, but I don’t want to distract them, I just want to get the informations that I need.

because it’s a big privacy concern/issue?

I’m a dev. I implement the designs created by our designers.
There is not a single valid scenario where anyone would need to see my cursor.
I can turn it off, although it will only turn it off on my side, others will still see my cursor and also turning it off will only work for a limited time (until i log back in again or refresh the page).

Makes me hate your product.

you’ll have my vote should you bring this topic up in #product-ideas

This should be an account/privacy setting on an individual user level.
Turned OFF by default.
This function deeply violates privacy in my opinion.

And not just for people who actually work with figma.
People who just check or implement the designs created on this platform are also observed.
Their cursors being tracked and shared.
Why?

It also raises questions of what else do you capture if the cursor is so openly shared (key presses?, screen?).
And why there is no notification about it being shared?

I moved the topic. Thanks for your input!

thanks. I think @Dave2 has already created a topic for this in “Share Feedback” back in February with 80+ votes. But apparently there has been no action taken since.

Moved everything to one topic, not sure why we had two.