Forget Apple Intelligence, this iOS 18 feature is pure genius (+ Android alternatives)

Designed to reduce or even eliminate motion sickness for users who struggle to read or use their phones in moving vehicles, I find Vehicle Motion Cues to be the sort of smart innovation that can truly enhance one’s quality of life. I’ll tell you all you need to know about Vehicle Motion Cues, as well as the best Android alternatives that are already out there.

Let’s put an end to motion sickness!

Apple’s Vehicle Motion Cues is a smart solution for those who experience motion sickness while reading or using devices in a car. If you know, you know.Vehicle Motion Cues addresses the issue by displaying small, moving dots along the screen edges that mimic the car’s movement in real time.
The technology is simple but impressive. The motion sensors inside the phone detect when the car turns, accelerates, or decelerates, and these movements are reflected in the behavior of the dots on the iPhone screen. By responding accurately to changes in direction and speed, these cues trick the brain into reconciling the movement it feels with what it sees on the display, mitigating that internal conflict that triggers nausea. The dots’ movement around the edges of the screen acts as a counterbalance to what’s happening with the vehicle, helping users “ground” their visual perception.

My real-world experience with Vehicle Motion Cues

After testing Vehicle Motion Cues for a few days, I can confidently say it’s a game-changer, nearly eliminating my usual symptoms of motion sickness. Sitting in the passenger seat and reading on my phone, I expected to feel the typical nausea after a few miles – but instead, I found myself surprisingly comfortable. The accuracy with which the iPhone’s dots mirrored real-world movements was particularly impressive, especially on bumpy roads or during quick stops and starts.

You can see how the iOS 18 Vehicle Motion Cues dots react to car movement in the following video:

Apple has smartly designed the dots to be peripheral rather than obtrusive, so while they’re always present, they don’t distract from what’s on the screen. If the car takes a sharp turn, for instance, you can quickly focus on the dots to reorient yourself before continuing with whatever you’re reading or viewing.

Vehicle Motion Cues could also be invaluable for kids, who are often even more susceptible to motion sickness. Parents can enable this feature for children in the backseat, allowing them to watch videos or play games on long trips without much discomfort. And, Apple being Apple, Vehicle Motion Cues activate automatically when the iPhone detects that the user is in a moving vehicle, switching off as soon as you’ve ended your journey.

Vehicle Motion Cues alternative for Android? KineStop and MotionEase are your best bet

As a fan of both Apple and Android devices, I naturally wanted to know if a similar feature existed for Android users. After some research, I found that the Play Store offers a few motion-sickness-reducing apps with comparable functions to Vehicle Motion Cues. I tested all of the available options, and the two standouts were KineStop and MotionEase.
KineStop is the most established of the two, and while it doesn’t mimic Vehicle Motion Cues exactly, it offers a few helpful features for managing motion sickness. KineStop presents a range of presets, including one that’s similar to the subtle dots in Apple’s Vehicle Motion Cues. But it also offers fun, kid-friendly graphics such as moving dinosaurs and trees, which may be especially effective for children prone to car sickness. The app performs well in detecting when the user is in a moving vehicle, though it doesn’t seem to register acceleration or deceleration changes much. It does, however, respond accurately to turns and bumps, making it a solid option for reducing nausea during trips.MotionEase is another alternative I found that more closely resembles the look and feel of Apple’s Vehicle Motion Cues, particularly in how it detects acceleration and deceleration. In terms of visual similarity, MotionEase comes closest, showing similar edge dots that move with the vehicle’s motion. However, while MotionEase has an auto-enabling in-vehicle feature, it seemed to be too slow to engage. Of course, you can always just enable or disable it manually.

This is what smart tech is about

While Apple Intelligence and other AI implementations may be the current talk of the town, Vehicle Motion Cues represent the type of intelligent, life-improving technology that Apple does so well. This is exactly the sort of innovation that may not seem groundbreaking at first glance, but ends up making a big difference in daily life.