[8] The first categorization of red algae currently placed inside Bangiales was the now-deprecated genus Phyllona by botanist John Hill in 1773.

However, Bangiaceae had been categorized seventeen years prior in 1830 by Jean Étienne Duby and Bangia even earlier in 1819, by Hans Christian Lyngbye.

[1] Ongoing research continues to rearrange species, as recent genetic studies have revealed that many early morphologically classified genera were incorrect.

[9] Members of Bangiaceae, one of only two known living classes of Bangiales, are used to make laverbread, rong biển, edible seaweed, zǐcài, gim,[10] and nori.

[15] Pythium porphyrae, a parasitic oomycete, causes red rot disease or akasugare which severely harms seaweed farms in Japan and Korea.

Pythium porphyrae has only been naturally observed infecting two species in Bangiales: Pyropia plicata and Neopyropia yezoensis.

[25] Despite their small size and thin thalli, they are commercially used as food in East Asian cultures, where they can be known as "红毛菜" (hóng máo cài).

[27] They include Boreophyllum, Clymene, Fuscifolium, Lysithea, Miuraea, Neomiuraea, Neoporphyra, Neopyropia, Neothemis, Phycocalidia, Porphyra, Pyropia, Uedaea, and Wildemania.

[33] Red algae of the order Bangiales undergo an unusual triphasic haploid-diploid life cycle; they can alternate between sexual and asexual reproduction.

The conchosporophyte is parasitically grown on the sporophyte, and is thus an asexual manner of reproduction which results in an exact copy of its parent's genome.

[8][35] Bangiales includes two families and possibly Rafatazmia, for a total of 20 to 22 genera in Bangiaceae, 1 in Granufilaceae, and 1 incertae sedis.

[39] Modern record-holders include Porphyra purpurea, with 251 genes comprising one of the largest known plastid genomes,[40] and Pyropia tenera, as the globally second-most-farmed seaweed only behind the brown algae Saccharina japonica.