<p>The capabilities of photodetectors based on halide perovskites have advanced rapidly in recent years, with their typical metrics—including responsivity, detectivity and response speed—surpassing those of silicon detectors. However, concerns regarding reliability and manufacturing yield limit commercial interest in replacing established technology with perovskite devices in conventional applications such as communications and imaging. A promising initial step towards the broader commercialization of perovskite detectors lies in customized device architectures for specific applications or products, an approach that can fully leverage the compositional versatility and integration capabilities of perovskite materials. Here we explore the development of traditional standardized perovskite photodetectors and consider the emergence of customized perovskite photodetectors, including shape-customized detectors, selective photodetectors, multidimensional photodetectors, dynamic-tracking detectors and neuromorphic visual sensors. We also consider the key challenges that need to be addressed to deliver application-specific devices for commercial applications.</p>