A toggle is a switch that allows people to quickly manage the state of something—whether that’s a setting, view, or content—by enabling or disabling it. They are commonly used in technology, computing, programming, and communications to provide users with an easy way to update preferences or settings. In software, toggles are often found in options menus, where they’re used to turn individual functions on or off.

A good toggle is clearly labeled and uses standard visual design. It should also provide a quick and immediate result so users can see the effect of their action. For example, if your toggle is used to allow a user to choose between light and dark themes, it should instantly change the app’s appearance, so they can see the impact of their decision.

Using a toggle to switch between two opposing states can be confusing if not implemented correctly. Make sure to evaluate your design against the following tips to ensure that it’s as effective as possible:

Toggle switches should be used only when the toggle’s primary purpose is to control the state of a view or piece of content. If you need to support other kinds of actions, use a different component, such as a list or form.

Whenever possible, you should limit the number of toggles that are active at any given time. This helps reduce the cognitive load on your users and prevents users from accidentally selecting an option that they don’t want to use.

When creating a new toggle, think carefully about its name and icon. It should be clearly labelled to indicate its function, and the interface should reflect the current state of the toggle—for example, by changing its background color or adding a visual cue that tells users the toggle is active. It’s also important to consider the underlying meaning of your toggle icon and how it can be interpreted by the target audience, including any potential cultural or societal implications.

In addition to ensuring that the toggle’s label and icon are clearly visible, it’s important to test the toggle’s functionality. This typically means testing the toggle with its current production configuration flipped On and with any toggles that you intend to release in the future flipped Off. It’s also a good idea to include some tests that don’t require the toggle to be flipped On in order to cover possible regressions that may occur if you don’t have the right toggle configuration configured.

Some teams take a more granular approach to managing toggle configuration by hardcoding it in the codebase with a comment or using a preprocessor feature such as #ifdef. However, this approach can still be difficult to maintain and doesn’t offer the flexibility of dynamic re-configuration.