<p>Soil harbours immense biodiversity that plays crucial roles in ecosystem functioning. Although our current understanding of soil fauna relies on traditional sampling as a high-resolution benchmark, these methods are often destructive, labour-intensive and limited in temporal resolution. Recent technological advancements offer promising alternatives for real-time, low-invasive monitoring of soil meso- and macrofauna activity, overcoming key methodological constraints. This paper explores the possible integration of novel sensor-based technologies into soil ecology, drawing inspiration from successful applications in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Optical imaging enables in situ visual observation of soil organisms at the millimetre scale, while bioacoustics captures vibrational signals produced by invertebrates, providing insights into their activity dynamics. These methods enhance spatial and temporal resolution and coverage in biodiversity assessments, even at lower taxonomic resolution, opening up possibilities for deeper understanding of interactions, phenology, diel or seasonal activity patterns, their functional implications and responses to environmental change. Challenges remain in enhancing detection accuracy, automating data processing, and extracting relevant biological information from this big data. The integration of sensors into global networks and/or their coupling with measurements of abiotic parameters are promising avenues to transform these tools into truly integrative systems. Such networks could revolutionise our understanding of soil biodiversity, unveiling previously invisible ecological processes and extend the predictive capabilities of models of ecosystem functioning.</p>