Radio antennas have long been used to increase the amount of radiated power and modify the emission direction of the radio waves. In his Perspective, Greffet discusses recent attempts to apply these ideas to the design of optical antennas, which could find applications in quantum information processing and spectroscopy of nanometer-scale objects. The author highlights the report by Mühlschlegel et al., who show that although optical antennas face challenges that are not encountered at radio wavelengths, radio antenna designs can nevertheless be reproduced successfully at optical wavelengths. Many other designs are being investigated in this rapidly expanding field.