What is a Toggle?

Toggle is a button or switch that can be clicked to toggle between two states or options. Toggles are often used in technology, computing and programming to provide users with a way to change settings or modes quickly and easily.

Toggles are a tool that allows engineering teams to test new features in a real-world environment without risking the entire production stack. The idea is that a feature can be “toggled on” for a select cohort of users and then “toggled off” to allow engineering teams to identify bugs, monitor performance, and make data-driven optimizations in a safe environment.

Most operation toggles are only active for a few days or weeks but sometimes they can be in place for a longer period of time. When a toggle is in place it’s important to communicate clearly with your customers about the impact of the change and how long it will be in effect.

In a more technical sense a toggle is also the name of a configuration mechanism for dynamically re-configuring specific service instances. This is a powerful tool but should only be used by automated tests or for manual exploratory testing and debugging as the results of a toggling action could be unpredictable in a shared environment.

When you are using a Content Toggle element on an article page, there are several advanced options that you can adjust in the left sidebar. These options include: