How to turn on trackpad haptics in Figma on Mac: desktop app steps for beginners

What trackpad haptics do in Figma

Trackpad haptics are the small taps your trackpad gives back while you work in Figma. Figma's help guide says they give feedback for actions such as creating prototype connections. In FigJam, the same feedback comes with emotes and high-fives. The feature changes how the trackpad feels. It does not change your file.

The setting lives inside the Figma app, so you turn it on once. You do not need to change anything in a design. Once it is on, the taps show up in the desktop app whenever a supported action happens. The Mac has a separate switch, so you also need one check in macOS.

What your Mac needs before you start

Three things must be true before you feel a tap. First, you need the Figma desktop app for Mac. Figma's help guide says the desktop app needs macOS 12 or later. Second, your Mac needs a trackpad that supports Force Touch. Apple says trackpads without Force Touch do not give haptic feedback at all. Third, the macOS option for Force Click and haptic feedback has to be on.

Figma's help guide also says haptics work only with trackpads on macOS devices. A mouse will not produce these taps, even with the Figma toggle switched on. If you use a mouse most of the day, check the trackpad before you blame Figma.

Check the Mac side of the setting

The Figma toggle does nothing on its own. Your Mac has a separate switch. Apple's support article puts it under System Settings > Trackpad, in the Point & Click pane. Turn on Force Click and haptic feedback there. Apple's article adds that older versions of macOS call the app System Preferences.

The two switches are easy to mix up. Figma can be on while the Mac switch is off, and then you feel nothing. Check both switches before you change anything else. If both are on and you still feel nothing, move on to the troubleshooting section below.

What you should feel, and where

Start with prototype connections. They make the clearest test in the desktop app, because the tap arrives at a clear moment. Drag from one frame to another and finish the connection. If both switches are on, you should feel a short tap as the connection completes.

Then try a numeric field, such as opacity or corner radius, and drag the value slowly. In a Figma community thread, one user found pulses while scrubbing numeric values distracting and asked how to turn them off. Replies pointed to the help guide. The thread had 649 views and no reply from Figma staff, so read it as one person's experience.

Turning haptics off again

Switch the Figma toggle off in Figma > Preferences to stop the Figma taps. Figma's help pages do not describe the off state in full, so this comes from reading the toggle itself. The Mac setting works differently. Force Click and haptic feedback belongs to macOS and applies across the whole Mac. Turning it off changes trackpad feel in every app, not only in Figma.

Does trackpad haptics work in a browser tab?

Figma's help guide describes trackpad haptics only for the desktop app. No official Figma page I checked says whether the web app supports them. Treat the browser version as unconfirmed. If you need the taps, use the desktop app. If a browser tab gives no taps, that does not prove your setting is broken.

Why the menu names look different

Figma's help pages say Figma dropdown menu or Main menu. Community posts say Figma > Preferences. Apple renamed System Preferences to System Settings, and its article names both. Labels can drift between releases, so match the idea, not the exact word. Look for the app menu named Figma and the Trackpad pane in System Settings.

Keyboard shortcuts and Preferences

Figma's keyboard shortcuts page lists ⌃⇧? for the keyboard shortcuts panel on Mac. It does not list a shortcut for Preferences. Do not guess that ⌘, works in Figma. The same page says keyboard controls are enabled by default and cannot be disabled. Use the menu for Preferences, and use the panel when you want the full list. Our guide to the keyboard shortcuts panel in Figma on Mac walks through it.

Keeping the Figma app and macOS current

The help guide says previous app versions lose support six months after release. An old build is a bad place to debug a feature. Update the Figma desktop app first. Then check macOS under System Settings > General > Software Update, because haptics depend on the operating system too.

Companies that deploy Figma have a separate path. Figma's Deploy on macOS page says the installer covers both Intel and Apple silicon Macs. Auto-updates need write access to the Applications folder, and installing to ~/Applications avoids special permissions. Without write access, Figma supports desktop versions for about two months, so admins must push updates by hand.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Turning on the Figma toggle but leaving Force Click off in System Settings.
• Testing on a trackpad without Force Touch, then assuming Figma is broken.
• Looking for haptics in a browser tab without checking the desktop app first.
• Trying ⌘, to open Preferences without confirming that shortcut works in Figma.
• Forgetting that the Mac setting affects every app, not only Figma.
• Changing five settings at once, so you cannot tell which change helped.

Fixing haptics that stop working

Work through the causes from cheapest to slowest. Confirm the Figma toggle first. Then turn Force Click off and back on in System Settings, and restart your Mac. If taps still do not come back, update macOS. MacBreeze's guide follows a similar order, then adds SMC and NVRAM resets, Safe Mode and Apple Support. Its reset steps are older Intel-era instructions that the source did not check against Apple's current pages for Apple silicon. Use Apple's own support pages before any low-level reset.

If taps still fail after these checks, note your macOS version and the exact Figma menu labels you see. Those details make a support request faster to answer. Send them to Figma support or Apple Support, depending on which side seems to be failing.

Related Figma tasks on Mac

Haptics show up most when you link frames. If that is the work you are doing, read how to create a prototype in Figma on Mac. To show the result to someone, see how to present a prototype in Figma on Mac. If your file has many frames, how to select layers with keyboard in Figma on Mac shows how to pick layers without the mouse.