Gas vesicles (GVs), which are genetically encoded, naturally stable nanostructures, are freely permeable to gases in the surrounding media, making them have unique acoustic, magnetic and optical properties, then can be used as contrast agents for a variety of imaging methods. Through the modification of GVs gene, its properties can be improved and can be prepared for the composite materials that can be used for tumor diagnosis and treatment. In addition, it has great potential to develop GVs gene as acoustic reporter gene. The research progress of GVs based image contrast agents were reviewed in this article.