Overlay behaviour

The reason I’m asking is that it was not obvious to me if it is the case that this how Overlay works. I haven’t seen any documentation on it. It would be nice to have a confirmation that this is intended or current behaviour in Figma.

Hi @Harald_Skogland, Thanks for reaching out about overlay action.

As you may be aware, the overlay objects are displayed above the frame, rather than within the frame containing the layer with the hotspot that triggers the overlay action.

“Swap overlay” action is for creating interactions between overlays. To use “Swap overlay”, you need to select the first overlay in the canvas.

“Close overlay” action allows you to close any overlays that have appeared over the original frame. Currently, there is no option to choose which overlay to close. You need to apply this action to a hotspot in the desired overlay.

There are a few aspects of an overlay that you can customize. Position, Close when clicking outside, and Add background behind overlay.
​​As you pointed out, the only available option for the outside of overlay is “Close when clicking outside” at the moment.

I understood that the current Help Center article may not adequately address your concern, particularly regarding the Close Overlay feature. I will pass along your feedback to our team for enhancing our documentation.

You may already be familiar with these resources, but here are some related articles just in case:

• Swap between overlays
• Close overlay

I hope this helps clarify things a bit. If I’ve misunderstood anything, please let us know. Also, if anyone in our community has a better explanation, feel free to share it here.

Thanks again for your valuable input.

Thanks for your informative reply and confirmation to my questions Junko3. I’d obviously like to be able to close an Overlay with an external interaction but it’s good to have confirmed that this is how it works currently. Have a nice day.