I was on a car journey recently and was instructed to test out the Vehicle Motion Cues on the iPhone. This was a feature that I had no idea existed and it blew my mind a little bit. If you switch on this Accessibility motion feature, it adds some dots to the side of the iPhone screen, which move around in relation to what the vehicle is doing, and somehow, magically it lessens any motion sickness you might be feeling.

It’s not something I suffer with drastically, but there are certainly times I’m looking down as a passenger and then wish I hadn’t been. But there are plenty of reports around the internet that the cues really do help the more intense sufferers which is great.

It works, apparently, because:

The feature uses the device’s built-in sensors to detect movement like acceleration, braking and turning. Animated dots appear on the edges of the screen, visually representing these changes in motion.

These dots move in the opposite direction of the vehicle’s motion to help reduce the sensory conflict between what you see and what your body feels, which is a common cause of motion sickness.

Magic, I’m telling you. There are options as well, to adjust the size and colour of the dots, which I haven’t experimented with yet. I’m almost looking forward to the next long car journey just to see it in action all over again.