Importantly, the combination of this new amplification strategy with disulfide crosslinked hydrogel structures enabled us to detect multiple thiol-analytes ranging from amino acids, proteins, to DNA by visual hydrogel degradation. The system showed to be highly sensitive to SH-concentrations as low as 0.132 µM and across three orders of magnitude in concentration, and this system can even react to force-generated signals. Despite these advances the current system does have drawbacks, e.g. the reagents are not covalently linked to the material and the amplification reaction is slow. Nevertheless, the proof-of-concept of this new approach for naked-eye detection is a promising step towards a new generation of responsive soft materials (e.g. coatings and adhesives) that are capable of showing an amplified response to low exposure of a specific applied stimulus, causing a macroscopic change in the material.