In recent years mechanochemistry has imposed itself as a novel promising chemical tool to bridge the gap between polymer physics and continuum mechanics in soft materials. The suitable incorporation of force-sensitive molecules (mechanophores) in load-bearing positions in soft (entropic) polymer networks and in linear chains has provided a tool to detect stresses and bond scission in 2D and 3D through the intensity of an optical signal. In this presentation, we will discuss recent results linking the optical signal detected upon activation of the mechanophores with the applied mechanical loading history1. Recent investigations addressed questions of quantification of damage by bond scission in diverse cases such as crack initiation and growth in continuous loading in uniaxial2 and triaxial tension3. We discuss also the requirements to go from simple imaging to quantitative detection, for comparisons between different materials and calibration of continuum mechanics models. In ideal cases the optical signal provides information with high sensitivity on the size and intensity of damage zones in front of cracks that would otherwise be undetectable.