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The viscosity reduction technologies have become a key issue to improve mobility and properties of heavy oils. However, the presence of asphaltenes, resins, metals and sulfur in heavy oil strongly influence the mobility of heavy oil causing serious operational problems in heavy oil production. In the recent years, there have been new developments in heavy oil recovery techniques and one new method is by in-situ catalytic upgrading of heavy oils. Because of their potential applications as an environmentally friendly and catalytically active solvent, ionic liquids have been gradually applied in upgrading of heavy oils. Therefore, this review selects and analyzes some research studies that have been reported in the literature to understand the physical and chemical phenomena involved in heavy oil upgrading by using ionic liquids. Moreover, we present a discussion about the most important variables in the process to provide a significant understanding of the ability of ionic liquids to reduce the viscosity.