Abstract Group-III-nitride optical devices are conventionally important for displays and solid-state lighting, and recently have garnered much interest in the field of visible-light communication. While visible-light laser technology has become mature, developing a range of compact, small footprint, high optical power components for the green-yellow gap wavelengths still requires material development and device design breakthroughs, as well as hybrid integration of materials to overcome the limitations of conventional approaches. The present review focuses on the development of laser and amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) devices in the visible wavelength regime using primarily group-III-nitride and halide-perovskite semiconductors, which are at disparate stages of maturity. While the former is well established in the violet-blue-green operating wavelength regime, the latter, which is capable of solution-based processing and wavelength-tunability in the green-yellow-red regime, promises easy heterogeneous integration to form a new class of hybrid semiconductor light emitters. Prospects for the use of perovskite in ASE and lasing applications are discussed in the context of facile fabrication techniques and promising wavelength-tunable light-emitting device applications, as well as the potential integration with group-III-nitride contact and distributed Bragg reflector layers, which is promising as a future research direction. The absence of lattice-matching limitations, and the presence of direct bandgaps and excellent carrier transport in halide-perovskite semiconductors, are both encouraging and thought-provoking for device researchers who seek to explore new possibilities either experimentally or theoretically. These combined properties inspire researchers who seek to examine the suitability of such materials for potential novel electrical injection devices designed for targeted applications related to lasing and operating-wavelength tuning.