A toggle is a button or switch that can be activated to move between two states. It is commonly used in technology, computing, programming, and communications to give users a way to easily switch between different settings or options. Toggles can be found in everyday technology such as a laptop power button or an office computer monitor switch. Toggles are also commonly found in software where they can be used to enable and disable features for different use cases or users.

In software development, toggles are used to make it easy to roll out and back new functionality during code deployment. When used properly they can help maintain a stable and performant application during periods of high demand or when dealing with unexpected issues.

Savvy teams view the Feature Toggles in their codebase as inventory that comes with a carrying cost and they seek to keep that inventory low by being proactive about removing toggles that are no longer needed. Some teams have a rule of adding a toggle removal task to the team’s backlog whenever a Release Toggle is first introduced and some even go as far as creating “time bombs” in their tests that will fail if the toggle has not been removed by an expiration date.

Toggle can be a powerful user interface element when it is designed well and is paired with appropriate information on how the toggle works. When users see a toggle, they should be able to instantly understand what it does and what the current state is. It is also helpful for the user to be able to easily and quickly change the toggle’s state by clicking on it again.

One major disadvantage of toggles is that they often rely on color to convey meaning (on/off). This can be problematic for some users because colors can have different meanings to different people and can be confusing when they don’t match up (i.e., green for on and red for off). This can be further complicated because many users with disabilities, including those with color blindness, don’t rely on colors at all to understand the status of a toggle. This is why we recommend using radio buttons or checkboxes in most cases instead of toggles.

During runtime, Kameleoon reads the configuration of each toggle and executes the function associated with it when the toggle is flipped to ON and skips the function when the toggle is flipped to OFF. By utilizing Kameleoon, you can easily toggle features on and off without having to deploy new code!