While relatively new in the digital landscape, mobile technologies and apps offer fresh opportunities to re-envisage some aspects of the mathematics learning experience and enhance students’ engagement and mathematical thinking. As well as the visual and dynamic affordances, touchscreens open up more direct interaction with mathematical phenomena, while the mobile affordance allows for easy transference between different learning situations, including home and outdoor, and more flexible ways for students to work collaboratively. A review of recent Research In Mathematics Education in Australasia (RIMEA) volumes indicates that research into the use of digital technologies inmathematics education is not new (e.g. Geiger et al. 2012). Despite their usefulness, perhaps due to their more recent development and uptake, there has not been a similar level of rigourous research conducted into the use of mobile technologies—iPads, iPods, iPhones and Androids in mathematics education. Such research is of particular importance as schools are investing heavily in devices such as these without a concomitant investment in developing practices regarding how such devices may be used to develop conceptual rather than procedural or declarative knowledge (e.g., Calder 2011). The effectiveness of their use in shifting student conceptual understanding is also contingent on associated professional learning for teachers (O’Malley et al. 2013). In addition, the often poor quality of many mathematical apps (Larkin 2015) is recognised as an additional concern when utilising these particular mobile technologies inmathematics education. Concerns such as these provided the impetus for this Special Issue of the Mathematics Education Research Journal (MERJ) on mathematics education and mobile technologies. This issue presents contemporary research, conducted by our colleagues from across the globe, in the use of mobile technologies in mathematics education. Our collaboration, as editors of this special issue, stems from a shared interest in quality mathematics education and how it can be enhanced, but never replaced by, digital Math Ed Res J (2016) 28:1–7 DOI 10.1007/s13394-015-0167-6