The Toggle is a tool to help users navigate between multiple settings, options, or features. It allows them to easily see what is currently active and provides a way to choose which path they want to take moving forward.

Toggles are a form of conditional branching and have many uses across different parts of an application. They can be used to test new feature code without impacting production, and they’re often deployed alongside a release to see how it performs with real users.

They can also be used to support agile development processes, allowing dev teams to create their own branches in the master codebase and then hide those behind toggles until they’re ready to be released. This eliminates the need to create new code on a separate branch and allows those changes to be made right in trunk, which makes it easier for teams to meet their delivery targets.

Unlike other categories of toggles, permissioning toggles are often very long lived – enabling features for months or even years. To avoid over-testing and confusing your testers it’s best to name these toggles with an expiration date so that you can proactively add a task to the team backlog to remove an old permissioning toggle when the time comes.

The Toggle is a powerful tool for testing and improving your product, but it must be used carefully. Be sure to deploy your Toggle with a clear and compelling purpose, and make it easy for users to understand what each state means so that they can make informed decisions about what to press.