Highlights•Information transmission channels in molecular fluorescent probes of different composition.•Intramolecular charge transfer and excited-state intramolecular proton transfer effects as methods of increasing the number of probe information channels.•Highly selective detection of ATP and peptide-lipid, peptide-protein, peptide-DNA, DNA-DNA, DNA-RNA interactions.•Examples of fluorescent recognition of cations of different radii and a wide-range pH indicator.•Separate measurement of local polarity and local concentration of H-bond donors in the environment.•Mesurement of local water concentration in bio-objects.