aWe report a type of polymer microgels that undergo rapid, reversible, and highly sensitive volume phase transitions upon varying ammonia concentrations in milieu. Such an ammonia-responsive microgel is made by tethering of a phenoxazinium, N-(5-(3-azidopropylamino)-9H-benzo[a]-phenoxazin-9-ylidene)-N-methylmethanaminium chloride, to the network chains of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-propargyl acrylate) via copper(I)-catalyzed azide-alkene cycloaddition. Tethering of the ammonia-recognizable phenoxazinium onto polymer network chains makes the microgels responsive to ammonia. While a fast (<0.1 s) and stable shrinkage of the microgels can be reached upon adding ammonia over a clinically relevant range (0.25−2.9 ppm), the microgels can convert the elevated concentrations of the solution-/gas-phase ammonia into enhanced photoluminescence signals, which make the microgels different from the phenoxazinium or its analogs reported in previous arts that exhibit ammonia-induced quenching in photoluminescence. With the microgels as probes, the detection limit was ca. 7.3×10 -2 and 3.9 ppb, respectively, for the solution-and the gas-phase ammonia. These features enable "turn-on" photoluminescence detection of ammonia in breath.