Mechanoluminescent materials produce photon emission when subjected to mechanical action. Generally, the emission intensity is linear with the stress magnitude and shows good repeatability (except fractoluminescence). Mechanoluminescent materials have emerged as important sensing materials for the advanced mechanical sensing. Mechanical sensing based on mechanoluminescence has outstanding characteristics such as remote sensing, visualization of stress distribution, self-drive, easy preparation of flexible devices, and integration. However, the performance of mechanoluminescent materials reported so far cannot meet the application requirements of advanced mechanical sensing. In the past few years, our group developed novel mechanoluminescent materials with excellent performance based on a design route of mixed-anion structural units and expanded the applications of these materials into a variety of new sensing technologies. This report summarizes our recent work on mechanoluminescent materials with a?hope?to further strengthen exchanges and promote the development of intelligent sensing technology.