Live Update

The Live Update feature automatically downloads and displays Figma designs as they’re updated in Figma. This enables designers, engineers, and product managers to quickly refine designs and try out new ideas in an emulator, on a test bench, or in a car.

Automatic Figma design syncing

First, you must grant Live Update feature access to your account on Figma.com using a personal access token. When access is granted, Live Update automatically downloads the latest updates to your Figma designs, allowing the DesignCompose library to render them on screen.

Learn how to set it up on Live Update Setup.

Design Switcher

Figma empowers designers to try different ideas with two tools: multiple files, and file branches. The Design Switcher lets you change the document or branch that your Design Elements are coming from, so you can quickly try out a lot of different ideas while in the car, without making destructive edits to your starting file. The Design Switcher also shows the current synchronization status, so you can check the last time your document was updated, or see if there is an issue (such as poor connectivity) preventing updates.

The Design Switcher is available when running in Live Update mode. The Design Switcher normally occupies a small area in the top right corner of the screen and you can expand it to show more information and controls.

See Working with Files and Branches.

Figma plugin and widget

To get the most out of the Figma integration, the DesignCompose Figma plugin is required. This plugin provides these menu items:

Live text format offers layout options for dynamic text, including line count and ellipsis.
Check document for errors scans a document for errors and warnings in node names and then reports the results. This feature relies on a keyword JSON file to be uploaded from the next plugin menu item.
Check and update keywords uploads a keyword JSON file generated when a developer writes a DesignCompose app. This JSON file contains data, such as node names, that contain customizations. This item is used by the Check document for errors and Live content format plugin menu options.
Sync Prototype changes makes the interactive components and prototyping properties available to the DesignCompose toolkit. Run this after editing interactive and prototyping properties in a Figma document.

The Auto Content Preview widget helps you visualize how your lists and grids appear on the actual Android-powered device.

Learn more about both the plugin and widget in the DesignCompose Tutorial App.

Using an HTTP Proxy Server on Android

Live Update can be configured to download Figma design via an HTTP Proxy Server on Android.

To set the HTTP Proxy Server, run:

adb shell settings put global http_proxy "<host>:<port>"

To unset:

adb shell settings put global http_proxy ":0"