Abstract: Magneto acoustic emission (MAE) is a promising nondestructive method to detect and assess the residual stress, the stress concentration, plastic deformation, the quality of heat treatment and the degree of fatigue and creep damage. In this work, the characteristics and the generation mechanism of MAE are introduced. The research progress and main achievements of MAE are overviewed. In addition, the problems existing in this technique is analyzed and the further research direction and the development prospect is predicted.