<p>Heavy metals are released into the environment through industrial activities, mining operations, and agricultural runoff and persist due to their non-degradable and toxic nature, posing long-term threats to ecosystems and public health. Conventional remediation approaches often face limitations in efficiency and environmental compatibility. In contrast, bacteria offer promising solutions for detoxifying heavy metals through multiple biological processes, including biosorption, bioaccumulation, enzymatic transformation, efflux mechanisms, and chelation involving compounds such as siderophores and metallothioneins. These microbial strategies are shaped by species-specific structural features and biochemical pathways that support survival under metal stress and can detoxify the heavy metals. The review is a comprehensive discussion on bacterial detoxification mechanisms and also integrates recent insights from omics technologies, genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and transcriptomics to elucidate molecular pathways and regulatory networks underpinning bacterial resistance. By combining mechanistic understanding with genetic engineering and process optimization, this multidisciplinary perspective underscores the potential of bacteria-based approaches as scalable, eco-compatible tools for long-term mitigation of heavy metal contamination.</p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>