Abstract: Aqueous zinc ion batteries deliver the merits of high safety, abundant resources, low cost and environmental friendliness, thus exhibiting broad application prospects in large-scale energy storage system. However, serious dendrite growth and side reactions occur at the Zn anode/electrolyte interphase, giving rise to the poor cycling life and Coulombic efficiency. These problems severely hinder the practical applications of zinc ion batteries. Therefore, constructing of suitable protective layers is one of the most important pathways to inhibit zinc dendrite and side reactions like hydrogen evolution, benefiting from their ability to isolate the zinc anode from the electrolyte while allowing rapid Zn²⁺ migration and facilitating uniform electrodeposition. Functional polymers show potentials as promising Zn anode protective layers, owing to their adjustable functional groups, rapid Zn²⁺ conduction, excellent flexibility, good film-formation and adhesion. This review summarizes the progress of functional polymers serving as zinc protective layers, and finally presents a perspective on the future development in this field.