Why your Figma layer never jumps under your cursor

transcript

You drag a button. Someone else moves it at the same moment. So why doesn't it jump around under your cursor? One clever rule.

Your edit applies instantly. This frame. You wait for nothing. It's marked unacknowledged, and sent to the server that owns the file. The server puts it in order, and acks.

You drag the button. x goes 100, 105, 112. Meanwhile Meera's 140, which reached the server just before, is echoed to you. Apply whatever arrives? The button jumps to 140. Under your cursor. Then your own change is acked. It snaps back to 112. Flicker.

Figma's rule. While a property has an unacknowledged change of yours... Ignore incoming values for that property. The ack ends the rule.

Isn't ignoring the server dangerous? No. Acks and echoes arrive in order. An echo before your ack was ordered before your change. Your value wins anyway. Rejected instead? Say the button was deleted. The reject carries the server's value. Your editor rolls back. The one time the network overrides you.

The user never waits for the network. And never sees their own edit flicker. Ignore echoes until your ack arrives.

Full breakdown in the lecture.