Abstract Protein N-terminal acetylation by N^α-acetyltransferases (NATs) is an omnipresent protein modification that affects a large number of proteins. The exact biological role of N-terminal acetylation has, however, remained enigmatic for the overall majority of affected proteins, and only for a rather small number of proteins, N-terminal acetylation was linked to various protein features including stability, localization, and interactions. This minireview tries to summarize the recent progress made in understanding the functionality of N-terminal protein acetylation and also focuses on noncanonical functions of the NATs subunits.