New in Figma: Key Management, Variants & JSON Export

The Smartcat Figma plugin just got a major upgrade to Asset translation mode: every text object now gets a manageable key, one element can hold multiple content variants, and you can export your entire localization as a developer-ready JSON file. All of this is live now for every user, with no opt-in required.

Cleaner handoff to development. Every text object gets an automatically generated key, which you can rename at any time. That means your Figma content maps directly to the keys your engineering team already uses in code.

One design, many content states. Variants let a single text object hold several pieces of content (e.g. empty state, loading state, error state) under one element, each with its own key. No more duplicating layers just to show alternate copy.

Design-to-code in one export. Export JSON turns your finished localization into a structured file with every key, source string, translation, and variant included, ready to drop straight into your software's localization resources.

Fewer duplicate strings. When you build a Smartcat project from the plugin, segments sharing the same key are automatically merged, so translators only see and translate each string once, no matter how many times it repeats across your designs.

Built-in conflict detection. If the same key ends up attached to two different pieces of text, the plugin flags it immediately under the Error tab, so naming clashes get caught before they reach a translator or a developer.

1. Open the Keys and Variants tab. Every text object in your file is listed here, paired with its key. Keys are generated automatically, or you can set one manually for any object.

2. Add variants where you need them. Select a text object and click + Add variant to attach an alternate piece of content. Each variant gets its own auto-generated (or manual) key, and you can switch between variants to preview each one directly on the Figma canvas.

3. Resolve any key conflicts. If two different text contents share a key, the plugin surfaces it under the Error tab. Fix it by making the text equal, or by changing one of the keys, applying the change to all matching instances at once.

4. Mark content translatable or not. Toggle any text object to untranslatable; it stays visible in the Keys and Variants tab but is collected separately under the new Untranslatable tab.

5. Create your Smartcat project. Kick off translation straight from the plugin. Segments with the same key are merged automatically, and focusing on a variant's segment shows that exact variant in the Figma preview, so reviewing translated variants is as easy as reviewing the source.

Translations can also be edited directly, on the canvas or in the translations list. A translation you edit manually won't be overwritten by Translate instantly, though it can still be updated when content is synchronized with Smartcat.

6. Export as JSON. Once translations are in, hit Export JSON to download a file listing every object's Figma node ID, key, source text, translations per language, and any variants, ready to hand to engineering.

Open the Smartcat plugin in Figma and switch to Asset translation mode.

The new Keys and Variants tab sits alongside the existing tabs, with Untranslatable and Export JSON available from the same panel.

If you're working in Software localization mode, note two renamed tabs: Text objects is now Keys, and Hidden is now Untranslatable. The workflow itself hasn't changed, and variants aren't supported in that mode.

This is built for design and product teams shipping multilingual interfaces, and for the developers who consume their output. Designers get a cleaner way to manage repeating and state-based content without cluttering their files, localization teams get fewer duplicate strings to translate, and engineers get a ready-made JSON resource file instead of manually reconciling Figma copy with their localization keys.