How to Convert a Figma Design to a Mobile App

What Figma Actually Gives You

Figma is one of the best design tools out there. It lets you lay out screens, define typography and color systems, create interactive prototypes, and collaborate with your team in real time. If you're designing a mobile app, Figma is a great place to start.

But here's what Figma doesn't do: it doesn't write code. A Figma file is a design artifact — it describes what something should look like, not how it should work. There's no database, no authentication, no API calls, no state management, no navigation logic. Those are all things a real app needs that a design file can't provide.

Designs vs. Working Apps

Think of it like an architect's blueprint versus an actual building. The blueprint shows you exactly what the building should look like — the floor plan, windows, doors. But you can't live in a blueprint. You need construction, plumbing, electrical, and everything else that makes a building functional.

Your Figma design is the blueprint. It shows the screens, the layout, the visual hierarchy. But turning it into a functional mobile app that runs on a real phone requires an entirely different kind of tool. If you're weighing whether to build a native app, a web app, or a PWA from your Figma designs, our guide on native apps vs web apps vs PWAs breaks down the trade-offs.

What Figma Can Export

Figma can export images (PNG, SVG, PDF) and inspect CSS values for individual elements. That's useful for developers who are manually coding your app — they can reference exact colors, font sizes, and spacing. But it's not anywhere close to an app you can install on a phone.

Why Figma-to-Code Plugins Don't Solve This

If you've searched for "Figma to app" you've probably come across plugins that claim to turn Figma designs into code. These tools export your Figma layers as HTML, CSS, or sometimes React components. Let me be honest about what they actually produce.

What These Plugins Generate

The output is typically static markup — a visual approximation of your design in web code. It looks right in a browser, but it's not an app. There's no routing between screens, no button logic, no form submissions, no data storage. It's the equivalent of a screenshot that happens to be made of divs.

Web Code Is Not Mobile App Code

Even if a plugin gives you clean React components, that's web React — not React Native. Web components render in a browser. A native mobile app renders using the platform's own UI framework. A <div> is not a native View. CSS flexbox is not the same as a native layout system. These are fundamentally different technologies that need to be built differently.

The Gap Between Visual Output and a Functional App

To get from Figma-exported code to a working native app, you'd still need to: rewrite everything in a mobile framework (React Native, Swift, Kotlin), add navigation between screens, implement business logic and state management, connect to APIs and databases, handle authentication, and test on real devices. That's essentially the full job of building the app from scratch. The plugin output saves almost no time.

Two paths from Figma to the App Store

Figma-to-Code Plugins vs. Native App Builder

Figma Design

Your mockups & prototypes

Figma-to-Code Plugin

Static HTML / CSS fragments

App Store

No working app — just static code

No navigation, state, or APIs

Months of developer work still needed

Natively

Figma screenshots + text description

Real Native Code

React Native + Expo → .ipa / .apk

App Store

Matches your Figma design

Real native experience

Full source code you own

The Screenshot Approach: How Natively Uses Your Figma Designs

Natively doesn't have a direct Figma plugin or integration. But it has something that works surprisingly well: you can attach screenshots to your prompt. The AI agent analyzes the visuals and uses them as a reference to build your app.

How It Works

When you start a project in Natively, you write a text prompt describing what you want your app to do. Along with that text, you can attach up to 5 screenshots per prompt. The AI agent sees these images, understands the layout, colors, component patterns, and typography, and generates React Native code that matches the visual design.

What the AI Picks Up From Your Screenshots

The Combination Is Key

Screenshots show the AI what the app should look like. Your text prompt tells it what the app should do. Together, they give the AI agent enough information to build a fully functional native app — not just a visual shell.

Step-by-Step: From Figma to a Working Native App

Here's the concrete workflow for turning your Figma designs into a real mobile app using Natively.

Tips for Getting the Best Results From Your Figma Designs

Not all screenshots are created equal. Here are a few things I've found make a big difference in how well the AI matches your Figma design.

Screenshot Quality Matters

Use clean, high-resolution screenshots. In Figma, select a frame and export it at 2x — or just take a screenshot of the frame while zoomed in so the details are clear. Avoid screenshots that include Figma's UI around the edges (the layers panel, toolbar, etc.). The AI should only see the app design itself.

One Screen Per Screenshot

Don't try to fit multiple screens into one screenshot. If you have 10 Figma screens, pick the 5 most important ones for your first prompt, then use follow-up prompts with the remaining screens. This gives the AI a clear target for each screen rather than having to guess which parts of a collage go where.

Be Specific in Your Text Prompt

The screenshot shows appearance, but you need to explain behavior. For example: "The first screenshot is the home screen. It has a scrollable list of workout entries. Tapping an entry opens a detail screen (screenshot 2). The bottom tab bar navigates between Home, History, and Profile." The more specific you are about what happens, the better the result.

Iterate Instead of Trying to Get It Perfect in One Prompt

Start with the overall app structure and main screens. Get that working first, then use follow-up prompts to refine individual screens. It's much more effective to iterate than to write one massive prompt trying to describe everything at once. You can always attach a new Figma screenshot to a follow-up prompt and say "make the settings screen look exactly like this."

If you've already turned your Figma designs into a web prototype using a design-to-code tool, you may also want to check out our guides on converting Lovable projects to mobile apps and v0 projects to mobile apps.

Frequently Asked Questions