The focus of drug delivery is shifting toward smart drug carriers that release the cargo in response to a change in the microenvironment due to an intal or extal trigger. As the most clinically successful nanosystem,liposomes naturally come under the spotlight of this trend. This review summarizes the latest develop-ment about the design and construction of photo-responsive liposomes with gold nanoparticles for the controlled drug release. Alongside, we overview the mechanism involved in this process and the representative applications.