The word toggle is often used as a verb, such as “Toggle between screens as you video chat with two friends at once.” But it also can refer to the physical switch that turns an item on and off. The toggle on the front of your laptop, for example, lets you adjust the brightness and volume, or the button that mutes your video clips.
When used in a user interface a toggle is generally considered more user friendly than a checkbox. It allows for immediate results without requiring the user to click the Save or Confirm button. In some cases the toggle can even be applied to multiple elements simultaneously using the uk-toggle attribute with the target option and one of the selectors (@s, @m, @l or @xl).
In addition to making users happier a toggle is more manageable for developers. A UI component with toggles typically requires less code and makes it easier to test specific scenarios.
However it’s important to remember that a toggle is a temporary configuration, not a permanent solution. A team should make sure to have a process in place to handle the inevitable toggle removals that will need to happen as the product evolves. This can be done by moving the toggles to a centralized store, usually an existing application DB, and then building out some form of admin UI that lets system operators, testers and product managers view and modify the feature flag configuration.
