Voice Typing in Figma

Why Voice Type in Figma?

Figma is a visual tool, but designers spend a surprising amount of time writing. Comment threads during design reviews, UI copy in text layers, component documentation, file descriptions, and FigJam notes all require typing. For designers who are used to working with their mouse and visual tools, switching to keyboard-heavy writing breaks creative flow.

Steno bridges this gap. Instead of stopping your visual work to type out a comment or piece of copy, you hold a hotkey, speak, and release. Your words appear in the Figma text field within a second. This means you can leave detailed design feedback, write realistic UI copy, and document components without taking your hands off your design workflow.

The speed difference is significant. Most people type at 40 to 60 WPM, but speak at 130 to 150 WPM. That means you can leave a detailed design review comment in 10 seconds that would take 30 seconds to type. Across a full design review session with dozens of comments, voice typing saves substantial time. Compare your typing speed to speaking with our typing speed test.

How to Set Up Steno for Figma

Figma Workflows You Can Voice Type

Leave Design Review Comments

Design reviews in Figma revolve around comments. Clicking on a specific part of a design, typing out feedback, and repeating this for every observation takes a long time. With Steno, you can click to add a comment, hold the hotkey, and speak your feedback naturally: "The spacing between these two buttons feels too tight. Can we increase it to 16 pixels to match the design system? Also, the secondary button color does not meet contrast requirements — let's use the darker variant." That level of detail takes 10 seconds to speak but over a minute to type.

Write UI Copy Directly in Text Layers

Designers often use placeholder text like "Lorem ipsum" in their designs. When it is time to replace placeholders with real copy, voice typing speeds things up dramatically. Double-click a text layer in Figma to enter editing mode, select the placeholder text, hold your hotkey, and speak the real copy. Move to the next text layer and repeat. You can populate an entire screen's worth of copy in a couple of minutes.

Document Components and Design Decisions

Good design systems include documentation for every component — usage guidelines, do's and don'ts, and implementation notes. Writing this documentation is often the last thing designers want to do because it feels tedious. Voice typing removes that friction. Click on the description field of a component, hold the hotkey, and explain how the component should be used. Speaking your documentation feels conversational rather than laborious, and you end up writing more thorough guidelines as a result.

FigJam Brainstorming

FigJam sticky notes and text blocks are perfect for brainstorming, but typing ideas into small sticky notes slows down the creative process. With Steno, you can click on a sticky note, hold the hotkey, and speak your idea. This keeps the brainstorming momentum going — you can capture ideas as fast as they come to you without the delay of composing text by keyboard. Use voice commands to say "new line" for multi-line sticky notes.

Reply to Comment Threads

Figma comment threads can get lengthy, especially on complex design decisions. Typing thoughtful replies to multiple threads eats into your design time. With voice typing, you can work through comment threads rapidly — read the comment, click reply, hold the hotkey, speak your response, release, and move to the next thread. This keeps design conversations moving without consuming your entire afternoon.

Pro Tips for Voice Typing in Figma

Frequently Asked Questions