A toggle is a switch that allows us to go back and forth between two settings or modes of operation. In software a toggle is often found in options menus where the user can turn on or off specific functions. In hardware the term can also be used to describe any kind of up/down command key such as the Caps Lock or Num Lock keys on a keyboard.

The word toggle can also refer to shifting back and forth between two positions: “She was toggling between the baseball game and the news.”

In web development a toggle is a UI element that can be either on or off. They are usually displayed as a checkbox or radio button with a label that describes what state the toggle is in (On or Off). It’s important to note that while a toggle may be on or off there should never be a requirement that users click a Save or Confirm button in order for changes to take effect.

A toggle can be configured in a variety of ways, ranging from simple but less dynamic approaches such as hardcoding the toggle configuration into static files to more sophisticated options such as using a preprocessor’s #ifdef feature to allow a toggle to be selectively re-configured on a per-release basis. In practice, however, the vast majority of teams opt to use some form of centralized toggle configuration management which is generally implemented as an extension of an existing application DB.