Fluoride ion is closely related to human life activities. Excessive or too little fluoride ions in human body will cause pathological changes. Therefore, it is necessary to develop appropriate measures to detect the fluoride ion content in human body and environment. Colorimetry and fluorescence detection have attracted much attention due to their high selectivity, high sensitivity and fast response. Herein, reaction-based fluoride ion probes are introduced. According to the reaction mechanisms, these probes can be divided into five types: interactions between fluoride ion and boronic acid derivatives, fluoride ion-promoted cleavage of Si-C bond, fluoride ion-promoted cleavage of Si-O bond, fluoride ion-induced dehydrogenation, fluoride ion-promoted cleavage of P-O bond. Not only the detection method of the probe is introduced, but also the action mechanism of some examples is described.