As one of the gaseous signaling molecules, aberrant levels of SO2 are usually associated with many diseases. it is of great significance to develop sensitive methods for detection SO2 on real. In this paper, a D-π-A near-infrared aggregation-induced fluorescent probe (DPA-CN) was built using diphenylamino-4-benzaldehyde and malononitrile for sensing SO2. The DPA-CN exhibit AIE characterization that can quickly recognize SO2 via the Michael addition mechanism. The DPA-CN displayed emission blue drift from 650 nm to 560 nm after adding SO2, thereby realizing rapid and sensitive colorimetric detection of SO2. The mechanism for recognition of SO2 was verified via magnetic resonance imaging (1H NMR), electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS). The DPA-CN realized rapid and sensitive recognition of SO2 with high specificity in 10 s within the concentration range of 0–100 μM. The limit of detection (LOD) is as low as 0.31 μM. Owing to its high sensitivity and low toxicity, the DPA-CN can be applied in monitoring of SO2 in living cells and food analysis. Furthermore, the DPA-CN was used to prepare a visible and ultrafast semiquantitative paper-based SO2 sensor with low cost and easy operation.