<p>Immersive multisensory communication is emerging as a transformative paradigm, integrating tactile, olfactory and gustatory sensations with traditional audio-visual experiences to expand the boundaries of human interaction. In this Review, we will analyse the critical role of advanced sensors in delivering these rich sensory experiences. As the core of multisensory interaction, we discuss how biological perception mechanisms inspire hardware designs for sensing and feedback, enabling high-fidelity data acquisition and realistic sensory feedback. We emphasize that intelligent sensory data processing, spanning source-side encoding for compression and destination-side decoding for reconstruction, forms the foundation for delivering sensory experiences. In particular, the shift from single-sensory towards cross-sensory data processing, which exploits inter-sensory correlations, is key to further enhancing both compression efficiency and reconstruction quality. Looking forwards, the deep convergence of flexible wearable devices, on-device computation and low-power AI is poised to herald a new era of immersive multisensory communication, fundamentally revolutionizing human lifestyles across healthcare, industry, entertainment and education.</p>