By synthetically controlling colloidal semiconductor nanocrystal heterostructure we have made significant progress toward meeting the demands of an ideal quantum emitter – achieving on-demand (blinking- and bleaching-free), high-purity, room-temperature, spectrally tunable (blue-visible to telecommunications wavelengths) single-photon sources. More recently, we have further aimed to influence brightness (emission speed and directionality), chirality, polarization and photon indistinguishability using external environmental effects, a strategy generally outside the control of the synthetic chemist. Here, I will describe our efforts to combine advances in synthesis with integration into nanoantennas and/or plasmonic cavities for added functionality. In particular, I will discuss “giant” or thick-shell core/shell quantum dots (gQDs) based on Cd-, Pb- and Hg-chalcogenide compositions that enable access to robust sources of single photons from ~750 nm through the telecommunications C-band (~1550 nm) (e.g., doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.0c05907). I will highlight differences in intrinsic brightness between the systems, as well as the distinct blinking/bleaching behaviors associated with different giant-shell motifs that rely on either type II band alignment for carrier separation or alloying for band engineering. Beyond synthesis, I will show work with collaborators that demonstrates a strategy for shaping light into highly directional, radially polarized and/or fiber-coupled photons streams. Here, we employ a scanning-probe “direct-write” technique to precisely place single nanocrystals into nano/meso-structured surfaces, e.g., hybrid metal-dielectric bullseye antennas (doi.org/10.1063/5.0034863; doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c03672). Similar hybrid, coupled gQD-antenna systems have even been used to implement a superior quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/7fdd-m92n). Alternatively, in a separate collaboration, we have realized for the first time ultrafast (to 65 ps) and ultrabright (to ~12.6 MHz) room-temperature single-photon emission in the O and C telecommunications wavelength bands via coupling colloidal QDs to solution-processed plasmonic nanoparticle-on-mirror cavities (doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.4c18261). Taken together, progress in synthetic chemistry provides stable quantum emitters for integration into a range of photonic and plasmonic cavities/antennas to push the limits of room-temperature quantum light emission.