How it works
Smartling’s Figma plugin offers an instant translation option that allows you to quickly generate translations without creating a translation job or waiting for content to move through a traditional workflow. This approach is ideal when MT or LLM-generated translations without human review are sufficient. However, this option is less suitable for highly creative or high-visibility content, as there is no human editing or review.
Instant translation is available as part of the standard submission flow. When submitting Figma content for translation, select the content you want translated, and then in the Submit Translation dialog, choose the Instant translation option.
How to use Figma instant translation
Step 1: Install the plugin
If you do not already have the Smartling Figma plugin installed, follow the steps in the Figma Plugin Installation and Setup article. You will need to create a Figma project in Smartling (if one does not already exist for your team) in order to configure your preferred translation provider for instant translation. Without a Figma project, the settings described in the next section will not be visible.
Please note that you must have access to Smartling as an Account Owner, Project Manager, or Requester in order to use the Smartling Figma plugin.
Step 2: Configure the preferred MT Profile in Smartling
Instant translations are completed using the instant MT service in Smartling. To configure your preferred MT or LLM translation provider and settings, log into your Smartling account (requires Account Owner or Project Manager user role).
- From the top navigation of your Smartling dashboard, access the AI Hub.
- In the Instant MT section, select the Figma Plugin tab.
- Here, enable Machine Translation for the Figma Plugin.
- Then choose your preferred MT Profile.
- If needed, language-specific profiles can be configured.
- Optionally, glossary terms can be inserted in machine translations.
Once enabled, instant translation with the preferred MT Profile can now be used for instant translation in Figma.
Step 3: Requesting content for translation
The process for requesting content for translation is the same as the standard Figma translation submission flow. Please refer to the documentation on submitting Figma content for translation. The only difference is that, in the Submit Translation dialog, you select the Instant translation option instead of adding the content to an existing job or creating a new job. After selecting the target languages, click Submit.
Step 4: Receiving translations
After you click Submit, a progress modal appears. Click the caret icon next to Details to track progress. When translations reach 100%, click Close.
Each time you request instant translations, Smartling creates a new page in Figma for each target language. The target locale is appended to the page name to indicate the translated version, for example: Dashboard Login [German (Germany)]. Each translated page is treated as its own page in Figma, so you can add, edit, or modify content without affecting the source page.
For additional resources, please refer to the Figma plugin documentation.