A toggle is a form of binary control (on/off) used to select or modify settings or options. It is a common piece of hardware found in many everyday technology devices such as laptops and mobile phones. It is also a common feature in software applications such as operating systems or word processing programs.

Often used as a temporary solution, a toggle can help a team experiment with functionality without the worry of rolling it out to all users. This allows teams to understand how a change will be received by their audience before it is fully rolled out, and can reduce the risk that a new feature will flop.

One of the biggest advantages of using toggles is their ability to easily manage configuration and deployment. This can be done through a variety of methods, from simple commenting all the way to more sophisticated use of a preprocessor’s #ifdef. However, each of these approaches comes with some drawbacks.

For example, the commenting approach can lead to code duplication and introduce bugs that may be hard to trace. Similarly, the #ifdef method requires the team to follow a specific pattern in order to update a toggle. Both of these approaches can have a significant impact on performance, especially in applications that are relying on a database for updates.

In general, the best way to use toggles is to provide direct labels that clearly describe the state of the switch, as well as a visual cue to indicate its current state. The label should clearly indicate which option is being selected, and should be easy to read. It should not be neutral or ambiguous, and it is preferable to avoid using words that are similar to the switch name (e.g. “enable” or “disable”).

Another key consideration when designing toggle switches is their user interface. Toggles are often positioned at the bottom of a page, and should be easy to click. They should be clearly labelled and visually distinctive, and should offer immediate results. Finally, they should be placed close to other elements that can be clicked, such as links, to ensure maximum user awareness and usability.

Savvy teams view their toggles as inventory that comes with a carrying cost, and seek to minimize the number of toggles that exist in their codebase. To this end, many teams have a policy of adding a toggle removal task to their backlog when they create a new release toggle. In some cases, teams even put “expiration dates” on their toggles so that they can be automatically removed after a certain period of time has passed. In addition, a good feature flag management platform like Kameleoon can simplify this process and make it easier for teams to keep their inventory of toggles low. As with any tool, though, it’s important to exercise caution and not rely too heavily on toggles in production. If you use them too much, they can cause technical debt that is very difficult to remove down the road.