Phosphate (P) is a major pollutant that leads to deterioration and pollution of natural water quality as well as the death of living organisms in those waters. With the rapid increase in the world population and incorrect disposal of wastewater, water pollution with P increases; therefore, reduction of it has received significant attention in the scientific community. This paper reviews the reported literature on traditional methods used to remove P from water and the advantages and disadvantages of each of them, in addition to discussing the application of modern adsorption technology to remove P from water using metallic nanomaterials, and discusses their unique properties and high adsorption capacity of P from water, then highlights the challenges and multiple gaps that may affect the efficiency of the removal process, in order to reach the best and fastest technology to remove P from water with the highest efficiency and the lowest possible cost.