We aim to provide a comprehensive overview of the progress in research and development of the reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) over the last 2-3 years in this paper, especially when the RIS is used as relays in next-generation mobile networks. Major areas of re-search in academia are outlined, including fundamental performance, channel estimation, joint optimization with antenna precoding at base stations, propagation channel modeling and meta-material devices of RIS elements. Development in industry is surveyed from the aspects of performance potentials and issues, realistic joint optimization algorithms, control mechanisms, field trials and related activities in standardiza-tion development organizations (SDOs). Our views on how to carry out the engineering-aspect study on RIS for 6G systems are also presented, which cover the realistic performance, the comparison with other topological improvements, approaches for channel modeling, factors for de-signing control mechanisms and the timeline for RIS standardization.