Based on the purpose of rapidly and efficiently de-icing of aircrafts, it is necessary to design and prepare the coatings with low (or even ultra-low) ice adhesion, and reduce the dependence degree on the high energy consumption anti-icing/de-icing technology. The development history of existing icephobic coatings is summarized. Based on the anti-icing mechanism of different coatings, the ice adhesion performance is used as a main technical indicator to evaluate the anti-icing/de-icing ability of the coatings. The de-icing mechanism of hydrophobic coatings, super lubricating coatings and low-interfacial toughness coatings are successively clarified, the hydrophobic/icephobic effect of the three are specifically introduced, and their respective advantages and disadvantages are compared and analyzed. It focuses on the advantages of large-scale deicing of low-interfacial toughness coatings, that is, when facing large-scale icing conditions, the (super) icephobic coatings defined by the shear adhesion strength are limited by the icing area from the viewpoint of de-icing external force, which increases proportionally with the increase of the icing area. However, the low-interfacial toughness coatings can induce the formation of micro-cracks between the coatings and ice interface and reduce the interface fracture toughness. This allows the micro-cracks to rapidly expand under the action of low de-icing force (even the ice layer’s own gravity), thereby making the ice layer to be detached from the solid surface. In this way, the methods of designing and preparing a new type of (super) icephobic coating are summarized, and the development directions of low-ice adhesion coating in the field of anti-icing/de-icing are prospected.