If you’re working out how to use Figma for client presentations, the short version is that the file can do the presenting itself. Frames play in presentation view, an interactive prototype can be sent as a link, and Figma Slides gives you a proper deck that can embed that same prototype. None of it needs an export to a separate presentation app.
Viewing and commenting follow different rules. Commenting on a prototype requires a logged-in Figma account and at least can view access (Figma Help Center), while viewing without an account depends on the link setting and the plan.
Which Figma format works best for a client presentation?
Pick the format by what the client actually has to judge. Static layouts work fine as frames. Behavior needs a prototype. A pitch with a story to tell suits Figma Slides better than either.
| Format | Best for | Interactivity | Main constraint |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frames in presentation view | Layouts and visual directions | None needed, step through frames on the page | No clickable behavior to judge |
| Interactive prototype | App flows and website journeys | Hotspots, flows, Smart Animate | Only connected frames play |
| Figma Slides | Pitches and narrated design reviews | Embedded prototypes, polls, stamps | Interactions need a logged-in audience |
Early reviews of a wireframe rarely need more than frames. At that stage clients react to structure, so added interaction is just noise.
Playback works on every plan. Sharing is where plans diverge, and the gap between the free and professional plans decides what a client can reach from your link.
For a full pitch, I’d go with a Slides deck that has the prototype embedded. Slides can add clickable prototypes from Figma Design, but a password-protected prototype file cannot be added (Figma Help Center, as of October 2026).
Figma reported that its users created about 3.5 million presentations in the year before Config 2024, in the company’s own launch post for Slides.
Figma Slides, introduced at that event in June 2024, gave the habit a dedicated tool.
How to set up a client-ready Figma file
Start with a cover frame, keep the presentation material on its own page, and order the frames the way you plan to talk. Everything else goes on another page or in another file.
Cover frame and page order
Put the project name, client name, version and date on the cover frame. The client sees the right file at a glance, and a second round gets a visible version label.
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Check them out →Only frames play in presentation view, so anything the client should see has to sit inside one. If frames are still new to you, a short guide to making frames in Figma covers the basics.
- One presentation page that holds only client-facing frames
- A working page for drafts, with rejected directions moved to an archive page
When the working file holds unfinished or sensitive work, duplicate it into a separate client file. A designer in a Figma Community Forum thread (September 2024) names a fresh file for the final presentation as the known workaround when a link exposes every page.
Frame naming and canvas order
Without prototype connections, presentation view steps through the frames on the current page. If there’s no flow starting point, Figma orders them by x coordinate from left to right, then by y coordinate from top to bottom, so frames sitting at slightly different heights can play out of order. Aligning the tops of each row of frames fixes that (Figma Help Center).
Prefix each frame name with a number that matches the speaking order and the layer list mirrors the talk. Names don’t set playback order, though. To reorder the talk, move the frames on the canvas.
Sections help too. Group frames by topic or flow, and keep Smart Animate pairs inside the same section (Figma Help Center). Objects only match inside their own section, so a pair split across two sections loses its match and Smart Animate has nothing to animate.
Raw frames are fine for early rounds. For a final presentation, screens set inside a device mockup help a non-designer picture the finished product.
How to build a prototype that clients can click through
Frames without a connection never play, so check that first. After that you need a flow starting point, device and background settings, and one full test run in presentation view.
Buttons, links and icons all work as hotspots. Dragging from one to another frame creates a connection that carries the trigger, action and animation. The destination has to be a top-level frame, never an object nested inside one. A group of connected frames makes a flow, and each flow gets its own starting point.
- Open the Prototype tab in the right sidebar (Shift+E toggles between Design and Prototype).
- Drag from a layer’s connection node to the next frame, then set the trigger (click, drag, hover) and the action.
- Add a flow starting point for each journey you want to show. Several starting points show several flows in presentation view.
- Deselect everything, then set the device, orientation and background color in the Prototype tab.
- Check the result in inline preview (Shift+Space), where R restarts the flow.
- Open presentation view and run the whole flow once, the way the client will.
For a fuller walkthrough of triggers and actions, a dedicated guide to prototyping in Figma goes step by step.
Device settings place the prototype in a realistic container. A frame preset picks a matching device automatically (an iPhone 15 Pro Max preset selects that phone), and Custom Size (Fit) scales a custom frame to the viewer’s screen, per the Figma Help Center.
Smart Animate is the transition clients notice most. It matches layers across two frames by name and by position in the layer hierarchy, then animates what changed.
Scale, position, opacity, rotation and fill all animate. Drop shadows, inner shadows and moving between shapes fall back to a dissolve, and overlay actions aren’t supported, except when swapping between overlays that have matching layers.
Mismatched layer names are the usual reason an animation never plays. Figma community support’s first suggestion in a May 2024 forum thread was to rename the layers so they match.
Save Smart Animate for moments that show behavior, like a menu opening or a toggle flipping. Plain page changes don’t need it, and motion beyond it is covered in a guide on how to animate in Figma.
How to present in Figma during a live call or in-person meeting
Click Present, share only the presentation window, and keep the editor out of view. Frames and prototypes open in presentation view, while a Slides deck opens in presenter view, where Present + Notes splits the audience window from your notes.
Presentation view for frames and prototypes
Presentation view opens in a new tab from the Present button in the toolbar. The shortcut is Cmd+Option+Return on Mac and Ctrl+Alt+Enter on Windows (Figma Help Center).
The left side of the toolbar shows or hides a sidebar listing your flows with their descriptions, and it switches on comment mode. Write those flow descriptions as an agenda.
Skim a full reference of Figma keyboard shortcuts before the meeting. Hunting for the Present button in front of a client costs more than it should.
Presenter view in Figma Slides
Slides starts from the Present button in the right sidebar. Present opens the deck in a new tab with notes hidden. Present + Notes opens the deck with notes, plus a second window showing the audience view.
Every presenter needs at least can view access to the deck. Spotlight hands control from one presenter to the next, so nobody has to say “next slide” (Figma Help Center).
For a room with unreliable wifi, preload the deck: open the options menu, choose Make available offline, and wait for the offline icon in the header. Embedded prototypes and YouTube videos stop being interactive offline, and closing the presenter tab means preloading again.
Screen sharing on a video call
On Zoom or Google Meet, share the window that shows only the presentation. With Present + Notes, that is the audience view window, so the client never sees your notes.
Close the editor tab and anything else you don’t want shown, and silence notifications. Then run one full pass in the exact window you’ll share.
In a meeting room the logic is the same. Put the audience window on the room display and keep notes on your laptop.
Walking a non-designer through the flow
Solid Digital, a web agency, describes presenting the live Figma file itself and sending clients back to the same link after revisions, so nothing gets re-exported.
Walk the user’s path, not the screen list. Start at the starting frame, say what the user wants on each screen, then name the business reason behind the layout.
Switch on comment mode from the toolbar to pin the client’s reaction to the exact frame while they talk.
Keep to one flow per segment, so the client is never asked to judge several journeys at once.
How to share a Figma presentation with a client
Open the prototype in presentation view, click Share prototype, set the audience, and copy the link. Whether the client needs a Figma account depends on that audience setting and on your plan, so test the link in a private browser window before the meeting. It takes a minute and saves an awkward start.
| Share path | Account needed | What the client reaches | Catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prototype link, anyone with the link | No | Prototype in presentation view | Prototype-only needs a paid plan |
| Prototype link, link plus password | No | Prototype in presentation view | Password protection is a paid feature |
| Invite by email | Yes | Prototype, if not invited to the file | Check that invitees did not also get the file |
| File link from the editor | No, when set to anyone can view | Every page of the file | View access still allows inspecting layers |
| Slides presentation link | Yes, logged in | Deck in audience view | Not needed for screen-shared decks |
Figma staff said in October 2024 that a client can view a prototype without an account when the audience is anyone with the link, or anyone with the link plus a password. Any other setting requires an account.
A separate guide covers how to share a Figma prototype without an account.
The sources disagree a little here. The October 2024 reply names no plan, and the Help Center says Starter viewers can open the source file from a shared prototype.
A September 2026 reply from Figma staff goes further. It says prototypes from a Starter team are viewable only by people who log in, while Professional, Education and Organization files can reach non-users by link.
The later reply names the plan tier, so treat it as the safer assumption on Starter, and run the private-window test either way.
Organization settings can override all of this.
- Disable public links removes both anyone options across the organization (Organization and Enterprise plans)
- Require passwords is Enterprise only and leaves link plus password as the single public option
When public links are off, invite the client to the prototype and not to the main file. That was the fix Figma support gave in a 2024 forum thread.
Figma Slides adds its own trap. A September 2024 forum report found that the audience link showed clients a button to open the view-only file, presenter notes included.
A May 2025 reply said getting the audience link from presentation view fixed it. Another user in the thread said logged-out viewers could still read the notes, which conflicts with the Help Center’s login requirement, so remove any note you would not want a client to read.
For clients who cannot attend, send the link with a recorded walkthrough made in a screen recorder such as Loom. Select a frame before you copy a file or prototype link and it opens on that frame.
How do clients leave feedback in Figma?
Clients leave feedback as pinned comments, and every commenter needs a Figma account. They also need at least can view access to the file (Figma Help Center).
A comment pins to a spot or a dragged region and attaches to the top-level frame, component or group underneath it, so it moves with that frame. Nested frames and layers don’t take comments. Replies are threaded, with @mentions, emoji, and attached images or GIFs. A resolved comment leaves the prototype and comes back through the Show resolved comments filter.
The interface has to stay visible, too. Prototype comments do not display when the toolbar and footer are hidden, so a hide-UI link leaves the client with no way to comment.
Comments can be hidden from your own canvas at any time, which helps during a live walkthrough, and a short guide covers how to hide comments in Figma.
On the client file, set comment notifications to Everything. The “Just mentions and replies” option only emails you about mentions and threads you started or joined, per a Figma staff reply from April 2024.
The account requirement is where most client reviews stall.
A guest-comments request on the Figma Community Forum has been open since April 2021 and holds 100 replies. Commenting on prototypes still requires a logged-in account, according to the Help Center.
A community staff reply in that thread says feature requests above 750 votes historically have a better chance of being prioritized.
Tell clients to reopen the prototype link after signing up. A post in that thread reports that the sign-up flow drops them on a workspace dashboard instead of the prototype.
If a client refuses to sign up, there are still ways around it.
- Review on a call and enter the comments yourself, naming the client in each
- Send the frames as a PDF for markup in a tool the client already uses, or collect live reactions with Slides polls instead
Slides has built-in interactions for live reactions. A poll takes a question or vote, and results can stay hidden until voting ends if you choose. Stamps give quick sentiment, and each one adds the voter’s avatar. Alignment is anonymous voting, with results hidden until it closes.
They all need a logged-in audience with at least can view access to the deck. None work inside the editor, so share the presentation link.
When Figma is the wrong tool for a client presentation
Figma is the wrong choice when the client edits the deck afterwards, when a PowerPoint template is mandatory, or when the working file must stay fully out of reach. Round trips through PowerPoint lose content, and the Starter plan caps how a file can be structured.
A Figma Slides deck exported to PowerPoint loses a few things, according to the Figma Help Center.
| Item | Result in PowerPoint |
|---|---|
| Fonts missing in PowerPoint | Text switches to the default PowerPoint font |
| Live interactions | Exported as static images |
| Code blocks | Exported as static images |
| Gradient fills | Changed to solid fills |
One user in a May 2025 forum thread reported lost content in PowerPoint and a failed load in Google Slides, a problem the Help Center does not list. Open the exported file yourself before you send it.
Importing goes the other way with its own losses. The Help Center warns that some objects can be changed or removed on import, and text with missing fonts switches to Inter.
A deck with no interactive elements, presented over a screen share, needs no client access at all (Figma Help Center). That settles the exposure worry for Slides.
Plan caps are the quiet limit. A Figma staff reply in August 2024 set the Starter limit at three design files, with three pages per design file.
A working file split into presentation, working and archive pages uses all three pages, and adding a second file for the client brings the team to two of its three design files. Check your plan’s current limits before building that structure.
When the client wants to mark up or edit in tools they already use, export the frames to PDF, or build the deck in PowerPoint from the start. A walkthrough on how to export Figma to PDF covers the steps.
My rule is simple. Figma for a conversation about a live design, PowerPoint for a deck the client keeps.
Figma for Client Presentations FAQ
Can you present a Figma prototype on a phone or tablet?
Yes. Open the file in the Figma mobile app and press View prototypes, and the prototype plays from its flow starting point. Only frames with prototype connections respond to taps.
Double tap and hold to open a hidden menu that restarts the flow, switches between starting points and turns hotspot hints off (Figma Help Center).
Can a Figma Slides deck show a device frame?
For embedded prototypes, yes. A prototype built with a device frame keeps it on the slide, and a toggle in the right sidebar turns it off.
The frame type cannot change inside Slides. Edit the prototype file in Figma Design, then add the prototype to the slide again.
Is FigJam suitable for a workshop-style client session?
It is. FigJam boards fit brainstorming and group exercises, and an open session lets participants join through a link.
Organization and Enterprise admins can disable open sessions, so confirm that setting before promising clients a shared board (Figma Help Center).
Can you edit the design while the client watches?
Yes. Inline preview reflects design changes immediately (Figma Help Center), so a copy fix or a spacing tweak shows on screen within the same session.
Keep live edits small. Restructuring a flow mid-call breaks the frame order you rehearsed.
How do you hand approved designs to developers?
Copy a link to Dev Mode from the Share modal, so developers open the file in the view built for measurements and specs.
A separate guide walks through Figma developer handoff from approval to build.
What to Do With the Shared Link After Sign-Off
A design approved through Figma for client presentations needs a frozen copy before the shared link stays live. The duplicate becomes the approved record, though feedback sent afterwards reaches only the original.
- Name the approved version
- Duplicate that version into its own file
- Keep, repoint or retire the client link
The order matters because anyone with can view access can browse a file’s version history, so a client holding a file link sees rejected directions too (Figma Help Center).
On a Starter team, that history stays visible for only 30 days, and the working file, client file and frozen copy fill all three design files. The 30-day window is current as of October 2026, and a change to it would change this advice.
From there, the duplicate goes to developers through Dev Mode, covered in a guide to Figma’s Dev Mode.
Many of his resources are available on various design marketplaces. Over the years, he's worked with a range of clients and contributed to design publications like Designmodo, WebDesignerDepot, and Speckyboy, Slider Revolution among others.
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