How Android’s Motion Assist Uses Phone Sensors to Ease Passenger Motion Sickness

Google is rolling out Motion Assist, a new Android feature that adds animated dots around the edges of the screen to help reduce motion sickness for passengers using their phones in moving vehicles.

The feature works by tapping into the phone’s built‑in motion sensors – the accelerometer and the gyroscope – which detect how the car is turning or changing speed, and then move the on‑screen dots in sync with that motion.

Users can change the shape, size, colour and opacity of the cues, and they can also set Motion Assist to turn on automatically whenever the phone senses that it is in a moving vehicle.

So far, Motion Assist has appeared only on select Pixel phones that run Android 17, and it is delivered through Google Play services as part of a staged rollout rather than a single, simultaneous update for all devices.

Apple offers a comparable feature called Vehicle Motion Cues, which arrived with iOS 18 in 2024.

The CDC explains that motion sickness often occurs when what you see does not match the movement your body feels, leading to nausea or dizziness. By providing moving visual cues that line up with the car’s motion, Motion Assist aims to reduce that sensory mismatch.

If the moving dots help align your visual perception with the vehicle’s motion, you may find it easier to read, text or browse while riding as a passenger.

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