Herein, a novel probe based on poly(N,N′-methylenebisacylamide) protected Au NPs(PDMAM-Au NPs) was developed for determination of silver ions. The thiol-terminated PDMAM was synthesized by the reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer radical polymerization. Then, the PDMAM-Au NPs were prepared by a simple, one-pot and green process. It has been observed that existence of the silver ions evoked a small red-shift to the emission peak of PDMAM-Au NPs and an obvious increase in UV absorption. The detection limit of the present method for silver ions was 0.5 ?mol/L, with a linear range of 1.0–1000 ?mol/L. Moreover, the possible mechanism for enhanced UV absorption intensity with enlarged diameter of PDMAM-Au NPs was explored and discussed briefly. The results demonstrated that silver ions could be detected by the PDMAM-Au NPs based colorimetric assays, further opening up new ways for the visualization and quantification of silver ions involved in our daily life. Herein, a novel probe based on poly (N, N’-methylenebisacylamide) protected Au NPs (PDMAM-Au NPs) was developed for determination of silver ions. The thiol- terminated PDMAM was synthesized by the reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer radical polymerization. Then, the PDMAM-Au NPs were prepared by a simple, one-pot and green process. It has been observed that the existence of the silver ions evoked a small red-shift to the emission peak of PDMAM-Au NPs and an obvious increase in UV absorption. The detection limit of the present method for silver ions was 0.5? Mol / L with a linear range of 1.0-1000? Mol / L. Furthermore, the possible mechanism for enhanced UV absorption intensity with enlarged diameter of PDMAM-Au NPs was explored and discussed briefly. The results demonstrated that silver ions could be detected by the PDMAM-Au NPs based colorimetric assays, further opening up new ways for the visualization and quantification of silver ions involved in our daily life.