Development of cyanide sensor is important as the anion is harmful to human health and the environment. Herein, a new colorimetric and fluorescent probe GSB based on boron dipyrrole-methene (BODIPY) containing salicylaldehyde group for cyanide detection has been reported. GSB undergoes exclusive colorimetric change from orange to colorless and exhibits selective fluorescence turn-on at 504 nm upon the addition of cyanide. Other 13 anions give almost no interference under physiological condition. Detection limit of the new cyanide-sensing GSB is 0.88 mu M, which is below World Health Organization (WHO) recommended level in drinking water. A calculation by density functional theory (DFT) shows suppression of photoinduced electron transfer (PET) mechanism along with the interruption of pi-conjugation between salicylaldehyde and BODIPY core by cyanide anion. Cell imaging studies demonstrated that GSB is compatible and capable of sensing cyanide anion in living cells. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.