Magnesium hydride MgH2 is an attractive hydrogen storage candidate due to its high reversible hydrogen mass capacity of 7.6 wt%, abundant resources of Mg and low cost. Unfortunately, its stubborn thermodynamic stability results in a high temperature of 573 K for hydrogen desorption, which is still far from the target for practical applications. In this article, we highlight the recent advances in stress/strain effects on the de/rehydrogenation thermodynamics of MgH2, which sheds a new light on tuning the thermodynamic properties of magnesium and other metal hydrides for hydrogen storage. (C) 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.