Toggle is a control that allows users to change between two different states or options. It’s commonly found in technology, computing, and programming applications as a way to turn features on or off. In other contexts, toggle can refer to a physical switch on devices.

While it’s tempting to use toggle switches to change large swaths of UI or application functionality, this can cause confusion and frustration for your users. Instead, use toggles to make a single change at a time that’s easy to test and understand.

In order to keep users informed, it’s important to provide clear, concise, and descriptive labels on toggles. They should describe what state the toggle is in, as well as the impact of its current status. Using high-contrast colors to indicate the toggle’s state is another key element of clear communication with users. Additionally, it’s important to consider societal and cultural implications when choosing color for toggles.

When used correctly, toggles can offer a powerful tool for developers and product managers. However, it’s also critical to avoid putting too many toggles on a given page or app. Otherwise, the number of changes that a user must make can quickly become overwhelming.

If you’re implementing toggles in your software it’s important to consider how they will interact with your existing configuration system. For example, if you’re leveraging feature flags to implement your toggles it’s crucial that your application can handle dynamic re-configuration of service instances at runtime. Otherwise, your team may find themselves re-deploying their toggles into test environments every time they need to perform manual validation or debugging.