A toggle is a switch that can be activated to move between two different states or options. Toggles are often used in technology, computing, and programming to allow users to change settings or modes. They can be found in many everyday products, such as smartphones or computer monitors.
Toggles are also commonly found in applications, such as social media sites and web browsers. These switches can be activated to change the display mode or settings of a site or application, and they can also be used to enable or disable features.
In general, toggles provide a way for developers and product managers to easily test out and deploy new features to users. This helps to increase the speed and quality of code deployments. Toggles can be a key part of the blue-green deployment practice, which allows features to be deployed in small batches with an automatic rollback if a problem is encountered.
Most feature toggles are meant to be temporary. Ideally, they should only be active for a short period of time so that teams can quickly determine whether the functionality is stable. Once the team decides that the feature is ready to be rolled out to all users, they should replace the toggle with a permanent change to the codebase.
However, there are times when a toggle may need to remain in place for longer periods of time. For example, an e-commerce company might need to deploy a new algorithm for their purchase flow and want to measure the impact of that on their conversion rate. In these cases, a toggle may be necessary to enable this experiment and measure its effectiveness before making a final decision on which algorithm to keep or change.
Another use for feature toggles is to perform multivariate testing. In this case, a toggle is used to enable multiple codepaths at runtime for a cohort of users. The cohorts are then tracked to see which codepath is more effective. This can help make data-driven decisions such as which Call To Action wording to use on a button or which navigation menu item to promote.
Using feature toggles is an essential tool for any development team. They allow developers and product managers to quickly test out ideas without risking production environments or interrupting the user experience. They can also be a great way to encourage a culture of experimentation and risk-taking within an organization. When people can quickly test and validate their own assumptions it becomes much easier to replace “I don’t think that will work” with “Let’s try it out.” Ultimately, this can lead to a more efficient development process and faster feedback loops in CI/CD workflows.
