Nano-porous glass is a multifunctional microstructure material, which is widely used in the fields of purification and filtration, biochemistry and ion selection. Also, the optical materials prepared with porous glass have some superior advantages in optics. Recent research work on nano-porous glass in the visible and near-infrared bands was reviewed. The luminescent properties of various rare-earth element ions and metal ions in porous glass were introduced, and the advantages of porous glass in preparing luminescent glass-ceramics and encapsulating carbon dots and quantum dots were demonstrated. A method of fabricating optical fibers using porous glass was described, which could be expected to break through the technical difficulties of various active optical fiber fabrication technologies. In addition, some prospects for the future development of nano-porous glass were also given.