Toggle is a physical switch found on technology devices that allows you to turn features on or off, like the ones on your smartphone that enable or disable WiFi or Bluetooth(r). Toggles are also commonly used in programming to provide users with different settings and modes for an application, for example to switch between light and dark themes in web development.

Savvy teams use Feature Toggles to support their newer agile approaches by allowing them to write and deploy software while the features they’re working on are hidden behind toggles until they’re ready for QA, release, or whatever the next step in their development process is. This approach saves time by not having to wait to integrate the features back into trunk code once they’re complete which is a major bottleneck in more traditional waterfall development models.

When implementing Toggle, it’s important to be thoughtful about the context and how you use them. Toggle switches should be used in situations where it’s clear to users that the switch is going to impact their experience. Ensure that you have direct labels and a standard visual design for your toggle switches to help users understand how they function. You should also consider how you manage the configuration for your toggles which can range from simple but less dynamic approaches such as commenting through to more sophisticated methods like a preprocessor’s #ifdef features, or even full blown feature flag management systems. These approaches can all have an impact on the cycle time for validating and deploying toggles which is essential to keeping your CI/CD process fast and responsive.