Quorum sensing refers to the specific communication among bacteria which could synchronize individual behaviors to collective benefits. This mechanism relies on the production, detection, and response to extracellular signaling molecules called autoinducers. Based on the understanding of scientific fundamentals underlying the activation and inhibition of natural quorum sensing systems, researchers attempt to introduce quorum sensing into engineering applications as modules or gene parts through synthetic biology, and employ it in fields such as medicine, industry and environment. In this review, strategies and methods used in the construction of quorum sensing system are briefly discussed, and the promising applications of engineered bacteria with quorum sensing for dynamic metabolic reflux, oscillation, and microbial consortia are also highlighted. The construction of quorum sensing elements requires the grasp of its essence, which involves the development of new elements and the optimization of existing ones. By simulating natural quorum sensing systems, and optimizing and modularizing quorum sensing elements, researchers construct libraries for quorum sensing elements, making them possible to employ quorum sensing under different circumstances. Moreover, by introducing quorum sensing, various feedback loops initially possessed by a single bacterium could be extended to the whole population. With the construction of such multicellular quorum sensing systems, more complex functions could be initiated, such as dynamic regulation of metabolic flux for boosting fermentation efficiency, robust production of drugs by collective oscillation and so on. In addition, microbial consortia containing could be manipulated by introducing exogenous quorum sensing systems, providing new tools for microbial co-culture and new ideas for the construction of biological systems with higher complexity. In the future, machine learning will be applied for designing complex quorum sensing circuits and accurately predicting the behavior of exogenous quorum sensing systems in certain microbial population.