The motion-sickness cure hidden in iPhone settings (bbc.com)
29 points by saikatsg 2 hours ago
croisillon an hour ago
Related:
- yesterday, 110 comments - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49077999
- 43 days ago, 272 comments - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48557530
jodacola an hour ago
Learned about this last month from HN [0].
Subsequently took a 10 hour car trip where my wife and daughter both reported this feature allowed them both to read their books and articles while I was driving, which was definitely not the case on any prior road trip. So, add +2 to whatever Ns you're tracking.
ihumanable an hour ago
Told my spouse about this feature when I learned about this a while back too. They have terrible motion sickness to the point that just shooting a quick text was a gamble.
Since they put this setting on, they can happily use their phone with no motion sickness. So +1 to that N.
snailmailman 28 minutes ago
Seeing lots of glowing reviews of this feature. Unfortunately it does not work for me. If anything, the dots just distract me or make it worse.
Glad it works for some people though! Weird how our brains work. Surprising to me that some small dots can be so helpful.
namuol 40 minutes ago
If they made glasses that did this I might buy them. I don’t need to look at my phone to get motion sickness, but if I do it’s almost guaranteed. It really depends on the driver, though.
stronglikedan an hour ago
This has been available on Android for years as various apps, but their limitation is that certain buttons become unavailable. Apparently, Android blocks certain "secure" buttons from being pressed when there is another app overlaying the screen.
Does anyone know if Apple's version has a similar limitation? I would presume not since it seems to be implemented at the OS level or at least closer to it.
shaky-carrousel 43 minutes ago
There's an open source app: https://f-droid.org/packages/dev.davidv.motionsickness
aleksejs an hour ago
That limitation can be bypassed through the Accessibility API on Android. KineStop supports this, but for some reason does not advertise it particularly widely. You want KineStop → Settings → Fix blocked buttons.
release-object an hour ago
Your suspicion is correct, it does not.
MaXtreeM an hour ago
Any ideas why I cannot find the settings on my wife's iPhone 12 mini? She has iOS 26. I wanted her to try it last week when we drove a lot to our vacation but did not find it anywhere in the Accessibility -> Motion settings.
embedding-shape 40 minutes ago
Strange, I have a iPhone 12 Mini and can definitely see a "Vehicle Motion Cues" setting under the "Vision > Motion" part of Settings. Maybe it depends on the Region? I'm in Europe if that matters.
skipants an hour ago
This works really well for me but, when I get out of the car or off the subway, then I get a bit of vertigo. I’m really afraid that using the feature too much would make the vertigo worse so I stopped.
damienmeur an hour ago
I m on Iphone 13, and disabling animations really gave a second life to my iphone which was really struggling
leetbulb 2 hours ago
I've been using this for a while now. It works very well while being a passenger in a car. Highly recommend enabling it if you experience car sickness.
deepspace an hour ago
I have been using the feature for ages, and it really does work, but it is by no means 'hidden'. It's just an iOS feature.
heaney-555 an hour ago
>but it is by no means 'hidden'
To the average user, any feature that is not enabled by default is effectively hidden. Most people do not dig deeply into the settings of their tech devices beyond aesthetic customization.
This is why defaults matter, a lot. Settings are for power users, defaults are for everyone else.
mpalczewski an hour ago
pretty sure it was on by default for me
Jtsummers an hour ago
stranded22 an hour ago
It didn’t work for my wife, so good to see she is the exception rather than the rule
kukanani an hour ago
Make that N=2, the one person I know who suffers from phone-induced motion sickness says that having this feature on makes the sickness worse.
fastaguy88 2 hours ago
Did I miss the part where you must be looking at your iPhone for it to work?
cschep 2 hours ago
> If looking at screens makes you car sick, you might want to try the iPhone dots. Or – stop me if this sounds crazy – you could just put your phone down and enjoy the ride.
Final paragraph of the article :)
jimt1234 an hour ago
It's difficult to enjoy the ride with motion sickness. So yes, it does sound crazy, most likely written by someone who isn't affected by motion sickness.
freehorse an hour ago
stronglikedan an hour ago
Analemma_ 2 hours ago
The first time I saw this I just took it as a given it would be a placebo, and I was rather astonished to find it actually helps quite a bit, my phone-induced motion sickness is reduced significantly with it on. If you're suspicious I'd encourage you to give it a try.