Group-VIB particularly tungstate based nanostructured materials with novel morphologies demonstrate significant photocatalytic activity as compared to conventional photocatalyst (TiO2), however it exhibits low response in the visible region of light spectrum. In this scenario doping or coupling with other materials of lower band gap results in enhanced surface area, higher electron- hole generation rate, reduced band gap effectively increasing the catalytic and sensing response. This study is aimed to focus on tungstate based nanomaterials namely Bi2WO6, PbWO4, ZnWO4 and CdWO4. In our research, we covered following aspects of the nanomaterials; synthesis, characterization, growth mechanism and applications. The hydrothermal synthesis method was adopted for the preparation of desired nanomaterials and then their structural, morphological, compositional characterization were performed using high tech facilities like TEM, XRD, FESEM, XPS, FTIR, DLS, PL, BET and EDX. The promising reaction mechanism of theas-prepared metal tungstate nanostructures were discussed systematically. Novel morphologies (nano-flakes, nanowires, nanoflowers and nanorods, etc.) were fabricated by optimizing the reaction parameters. The photocatalytic response of the nanostructures were evaluated by degrading the model organic Coomassie brilliant blue (CBB), Congo red (CR) and Methylene Blue (MB) dyes.Electrochemical bio-sensing, the horseradish peroxidase-like (HRP) activity and hydrogen storage features were also evaluated.