A toggle is a switch that allows a user to set a specific state of something. This is often used to change between different settings or programs. It can also be applied to changes made within a single program such as enabling or disabling certain behavior.

Toggles are useful in continuous development because they allow your engineering team to experiment with code without impacting all users. They can be used to test new features with a subset of your users, validate them in real-world usage and remotely rollback the feature if needed.

When creating a toggle, it’s important to think about its state. It should be clear which options it controls and what the current state is. Labels should be short and direct and should clearly indicate the current state. Using high-contrast colors to indicate the state can help. It’s also wise to evaluate societal and cultural implications of your color choices.

Once a feature is ready for production, many teams choose to use an internal centralized system to manage their toggle configuration. This helps with maintainability, scale and ensuring consistency across servers. Some systems store the configuration in static files while others store it in an application DB. Regardless of the chosen method, it’s a good idea to limit the number of toggles that exist in your production environment at any given time and ensure all toggles are flipped Off prior to releasing them to users.

Toggles are useful in responsive design because they can hide sections or items based on a screen size. They can be replaced with secrets and subscriber containers to provide even more flexibility for hiding content.