Two‐dimensional materials represent the basis of technological development to produce applications with high added value for nanoelectronics, photonics, and optoelectronics. In first decades of this century, these materials are impelling this development through materials based on carbon, silicon, germanium, tin, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, and boron. 2D materials for photonic applications used until now are graphene, silicene, germanene, stanene, phosphorene, arsenene, antimonene, and borophene. In this work, the main strategies to modify optical properties of 2D materials are studied for achieving photodetection, transportation, and emitting of light. Optical properties analyzed here are refractive index, extinction coefficient, relative permittivity, absorption coefficient, chromatic dispersion, group index, and transmittance. The transmittance spectra of various two-dimensional materials are presented here with the aim of classifying them from photonic point‐of‐view. A performance comparison between graphene and other two‐dimensional materials is done to help the designer choose the best design material for photonic applications. In next three decades, a lot of scientific research will be realized to completely exploit the use of 2D materials either as single monolayers or as stacked multilayers in several fields of knowledge with a special emphasis in the optoelectronics and photonic industry in benefit of the industry and ultimately to our society
