Togle (pronounced TOGHLE) is a user-interface element that helps people choose between two opposing states of something. It’s often used to update preferences, settings, and other types of information.

Toggle definition:

The free online dictionary Wiktionary defines toggle as “a pin passed through the eye of a rope to hold it in place” and “a fastener that is usually a pin, frog, or button with a hook at its end.”
Useful Examples:
The Caps Lock and Num Lock keys on your keyboard are toggles for specific functions. When ON, the Caps Lock key turns on your text editor’s capitalization features. When OFF, it disables those features.

On macOS, you can also set a toggle to behave like a checkbox with a different appearance for each state. It’s important to note that the label should be clearly describing the state, not neutral or ambiguous.

Toggles are useful in a variety of situations and platforms, but they should be used carefully to avoid confusion. In addition, they should be implemented consistently across your entire app or site, so that users know when to toggle something on and when to switch it off.

How to manage toggle configuration:

The first approach to managing toggle configuration is to hardcode the configuration into a static file. This is typically preferred but comes with a significant amount of complexity and can be difficult to maintain at scale.

Another approach is to expose an endpoint that allows dynamic in-memory re-configuration of the feature flag. This is a much more flexible and efficient option but requires some additional code to be written.