Google has introduced a new feature on Android 17 designed to help reduce motion sickness, i.e. the discomfort that can manifest itself with nausea, dizziness and other symptoms when traveling in a vehicle. It’s called Motion Assist and, once activated, it makes animated shapes appear on the display that react to the car’s movements, without preventing you from reading, watching a video or using apps.
Something very similar has already been present on iPhones since iOS 18 with the Motion indicators in vehicles option. Both solutions provide the eyes with a reference on the movement of the vehicle, making the visual information more coherent with that perceived by the body and thus helping to reduce the sensory conflict associated with the disorder.
Because looking at your smartphone in the car can cause nausea
One of the most accredited scientific explanations of motion sickness is the so-called sensory conflict theory: discomfort can appear when the brain receives information about movement that does not correspond to what is expected.
Above all, vision and the vestibular system come into play, the latter is an apparatus located in the inner ear that contributes to balance and the perception of head and body movements. When a passenger looks at their smartphone, their eyes remain focused on a display that appears substantially still in relation to the person. In the meantime, however, the body continues to perceive accelerations, braking, curves and oscillations of the car.
This creates a discrepancy. From a visual point of view there are few indications of the displacement, while the vestibular system continues to record it. In more sensitive people this mismatch can contribute to the appearance of symptoms such as nausea, dizziness and sweating.
It’s also one of the reasons why looking out the window can be more tolerable than reading while traveling. By observing the road or the landscape, the sight receives more information on the movement, more compatible with that coming from the inner ear. The mechanism underlying motion sickness is however complex and sensory conflict, despite being the most accepted explanation, is not the only aspect involved in motion sickness.
How Motion Assist dots work on Android 17
Arriving with the September 2026 Android Drop, Motion Assist intervenes precisely on the visual component of the problem. When the function is active, Android displays a series of small animated bubbles that move together with the vehicle. Items remain visible above what’s shown on the display, allowing you to continue using apps as normal.
The aim is to offer the eye information that is normally missing when the gaze remains fixed on the phone: the variations in the movement of the vehicle are represented through the movement of the bubbles. The display therefore not only shows contents that are apparently immobile compared to the passenger, but also visual signals connected to the movement of the vehicle, increasing the coherence between what the eyes see and what the body perceives.
To activate the functionality you need to proceed as follows:
- Open the Android Settings app;
- Tap your profile;
- Select the All Services item, scroll to the Device Security and Personal Safety section and choose Motion Assist.
From here you can set automatic activation when the smartphone detects that it is on board a moving vehicle, add a specific command to the quick access panel to enable it manually and customize the indicators by changing their colour, shape and opacity.
With both automatic and manual activation, a dedicated notification appears on the screen, through which you can quickly deactivate Motion Assist.
How to enable Motion Indicators in Vehicles on iPhone
In May 2024, Apple had already presented Motion Indicators in vehicles, and then made them available with iOS 18 in September of the same year. The feature shows animated dots at the edges of the display that represent changes in the vehicle’s movement without interfering with what is displayed on the screen.
Apple explains that the sensors integrated into the iPhone allow the device to detect when it is inside a moving vehicle and to make the dots shown on the display react accordingly. In this way, even while the gaze remains focused on the central content, in the peripheral vision there are visual references consistent with the movements of the medium.
To activate the function you need to do the following:
- Open the iOS Settings app;
- Select the Accessibility item;
- Press on the wording Movement and touch the item Motion indicators in vehicles.
From the screen displayed you can decide whether to activate the function automatically when the iPhone detects that you are on board a moving vehicle or manually and you can access the section for customizing the appearance. Indicators can also be manually shown or hidden from the Control Center.
From the same section it is possible to customize its appearance by choosing a Regular or Dynamic pattern, changing the color or increasing the size or number of stitches.
Do dots on the screen really work for nausea?
The idea of using visual cues related to movement to reduce motion sickness has also been analyzed by scientific research. The points shown on the display do not change what is perceived by the vestibular system, but provide information to the eye that is normally absent or very limited when attention remains focused on the smartphone.
An important aspect concerns the position of these elements. A scientific review dedicated to the use of visual cues to reduce motion sickness in vehicles analyzed several such systems. The authors found that these stimuli can reduce discomfort in certain configurations and that, in the studies examined, those presented in the peripheral visual field were generally more effective than those shown only in the central area of vision.
The choice to place the points at the edges of the display then allows us to provide a reference on the movement without occupying the area on which attention is focused. It’s particularly evident in Apple’s solution, where the indicators are explicitly shown on the sides of the screen, while Motion Assist uses a graphic overlay designed not to hinder the use of apps.
However, this does not mean that these functions are able to eliminate motion sickness in every situation. The same review shows promising results, but highlights that effectiveness also depends on the way signals are presented. Furthermore, the susceptibility to motion sickness and the intensity of the symptoms can vary from person to person. These are therefore tools designed to alleviate discomfort, not systems that guarantee its disappearance.
Finally, there remains an important aspect related to safety: these functions are designed for those who use the smartphone as a passenger. Apple explicitly warns that Motion Indicators in vehicles should not be used while driving or in other situations requiring full attention.
The points shown by Android and iPhone therefore do not represent a cure for motion sickness, but rather serve to translate the movement that the body is already perceiving into a visual signal.
