Anti-resonant hollow-core fiber (ARF) is regarded as highly promising for high-speed communications, high-power laser delivery, and precision sensing due to its distinctive guidance mechanism and superior performance. In this review, we introduce the guiding mechanisms of ARF and the general overview of ARF development. Material absorption, Rayleigh scattering, and nonlinearity are suppressed via an air or low refractive index core, enabling low loss and stable transmission. Subsequently, recent results and progress in mode control of ARF are summarized, including single-mode, multi-mode, and polarization-maintaining realized via cladding structure optimization, gas filling, and introduction of symmetry breaking. In the end, prospective research directions are outlined to accelerate the adoption of ARF in precision laser machining, high-capacity communications, and optical imaging.