Luminescent ions doped materials have been widely applied in many areas, both scientific research and practical fields. Recently, incorporating luminescent ions and advanced materials into versatile and multifunctional systems seems to be a tendency, motivated by the stimulating desires of fundamental studies and technological applications. This feature article provides a general overview of the myriad of luminescent ions-based advanced composite materials recently investigated. It is demonstrated that the improved or additional properties may be achieved via implementing a strategy of incorporating luminescent ions (lanthanide, transition and main group metal ions) into various types of materials, such as flexible polymers, two-dimensional atomically thin layers, porous materials, and so on. We outline the design principles, synthesis and processing of various systems joined by luminescent ions doped phosphors. A number of recent works indicate that those novel composite materials allow one to conceive and develop multifunctional applications in a broad area, including optoelectronics, photonics, clean energy, biomedicine, and new types of sensors. Lastly, some challenging issues are discussed and potential directions are suggested for further developing advanced composite materials incorporated with luminescent ions.