Figma Annotations: How They Work and Who Can See Them

An annotation is a note tied to a specific layer that explains something the pixels can't: how a component behaves on hover, what a screen reader should announce, which API field fills a label. Figma added them as part of the Dev Mode handoff workflow, and they show up in both Design and Dev Mode for people with the right seat.

Beyond free text, an annotation can include properties. Click + Property and pick a value like auto layout direction or width, and Figma displays the layer's current value. If a designer changes the layer later, the annotation reflects the change, which a hand-typed note would not.

Both sit on the canvas, but they do different jobs.

• Comments are conversations. Anyone with at least view access can add and read them on any plan, including Starter. They get resolved and disappear from view.
• Annotations are documentation. They describe how a design should be built, stay attached to the layer, and can show live property values. Only Full seats with edit access can add them, and only Full or Dev seats can view them.
• Measurements are a companion to annotations. Unlike the temporary distances you see by holding Alt or Option, a saved measurement stays on the file for developers.

A good rule is to use comments for questions and review feedback, and annotations for anything a developer still needs after the review is over.

According to Figma's help center, annotations are available on all paid plans. Anyone with a Full or Dev seat and at least can view access to a file can see measurements and annotations. That leaves out people on the free Starter plan and anyone on a Collab or View seat, which often includes product managers, QA testers, copywriters and clients.

Developers see annotations in Dev Mode by default and can hide them. Designers can hide them too through Main menu > View > Annotations, which helps when the canvas gets crowded.

The process is the same in both modes. Press Shift + T, click a layer, and type your note or attach properties. Figma ships four categories (Development, Interaction, Accessibility and Content), and you can rename them, recolor them or add your own, such as Analytics or Motion. Categories make it easier for a developer to scan for the one kind of note they care about.

Native annotations are the right default when your whole handoff audience has Full or Dev seats. A plugin earns its place when that isn't true, or when you want annotations that look like part of the design file. Plugin-made annotations are regular layers, so anyone who opens the file can see them, and they show up in screenshots and presentations.

Annomate is our free plugin for this. Select exactly one layer, then fill in:

• A title and content, with light markdown for bold, italic, bullet and numbered lists, and links.
• A position of top, right, bottom or left. Annomate places the card outside the outermost parent container and draws a dashed connector to an anchor dot on the element.
• A theme: red, green, blue, orange, purple or gray, or any custom hex color.
• Optional tags (Bug, Review, Todo or your own, each with a color), a link that becomes a readable label like View in JIRA or View on GitHub, and an author line with your Figma name.

Click Create Annotation and the plugin adds a grouped annotation to the canvas. Select an existing Annomate group later and the plugin switches to edit mode, so you update the note in place instead of redrawing it. Presets save a position, title, theme, tags, link and author setting you reuse, which keeps repeated QA or accessibility notes consistent. Presets and tags are saved in the plugin's local storage, so they follow you across files.

The trade-off is that plugin annotations are static layers. They won't show live property values the way native annotations do, and if you rearrange a screen you should check that each connector still points at the right element. New to plugins? Here's how to install Figma plugins.

Annotations explain behavior on specific screens. For component-level documentation such as anatomy, spacing and a property table, a generated spec is faster; see how to make Figma design specs. If QA needs to check every state, generate all component variants into a grid and annotate the combinations that need extra explanation.