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The word toggle means to switch between two states, like the on/off key that turns your caps lock back and forth as you video chat with a friend. Toggles have a distinct appearance, with a different color for each state, to make it clear which one is active. They also produce a clear effect when clicked, so that users don’t have to wonder if their action has the intended impact.

Feature toggles have many uses for product teams, from A/B testing to acting as circuit breakers during code deployment. But perhaps the most important use for a feature toggle is as a tool to support development teams. Often, a dev team will want to implement a new feature without having to merge the entire master branch into production. A feature toggle will allow them to do that while still allowing the dev team to meet their delivery goals and deadlines.

Toggles can be long-lived or semi-permanent, but it’s important to keep them within a small scope to reduce the overhead of their management. When a toggle has run its course, it should be removed as soon as possible so it doesn’t interfere with other features or increase a team’s risk. This may be accomplished by adding a task to the team’s backlog or putting a process in place within the management platform.