Figma Takes Glass Effect Out of Beta With New Controls.

Figma has officially taken its Glass effect out of beta, giving designers more precise control over the popular frosted-glass aesthetic that has become a staple of modern interface design.

The update, announced on LinkedIn on January 27, introduces several new capabilities that make the effect more flexible and easier to integrate into design systems.

The updated Glass effect can now be applied to any object, shape, or text in Figma, expanding beyond its initial limited scope. Designers can round individual corners independently, a feature that addresses one of the most common complaints about the original implementation. Teams building interfaces with mixed corner radii, such as cards that need sharp corners on one side and rounded on the other, no longer need workarounds.

The standout addition is Splay, a parameter that controls the spread of light refraction. This gives designers granular control over how light appears to scatter through the glass surface, making it possible to fine-tune the intensity and character of the effect without layering multiple elements or resorting to image editing tools.

Perhaps most significantly for teams working at scale, the Glass effect now supports variables from Figma's design system toolkit. This means teams can define glass properties once, such as blur intensity, tint color, or splay value, and apply them consistently across files. When those variables change, every instance updates automatically.

Glass effects, also known as glassmorphism, have been trending in UI design since Apple popularized the look in iOS and macOS interfaces. The aesthetic creates depth and hierarchy by making elements appear to float above background content, with blurred backgrounds and subtle transparency conveying a sense of layering.

Until now, achieving this effect in Figma often required multiple layers, manual adjustments, or plugins that didn't integrate cleanly with design systems. The beta version offered basic functionality but lacked the precision needed for production work. By bringing Glass into Figma's core feature set with full variable support, the company is acknowledging how widely the effect is used and making it easier for teams to maintain consistency.

For teams already using Figma's design system features, this update reduces friction. Variables for spacing, colors, and typography have been available for some time, and adding Glass properties to that list means fewer manual updates when design decisions change. A brand refresh that requires adjusting glass tint or blur can now propagate across every file without hunting down individual instances.

The timing also aligns with Figma's broader push to make its tools more production-ready. As previously covered, the company has been steadily adding features like Text-on-Path and Auto Layout to Draw Mode, tightening the gap between design exploration and implementation.

The Glass effect is rolling out now to all Figma users. Teams working with design systems should see the variable integration options immediately, while those using the effect for the first time can find it in the effects panel alongside drop shadows and blurs.

For designers who have been waiting for tighter control over glass aesthetics or who need to standardize the effect across large projects, this update removes a significant pain point. The combination of individual corner control, adjustable splay, and variable support makes Glass a genuinely useful tool rather than a decorative add-on.