Using an Android phone in a moving vehicle could soon be much easier

Google is a said to be working on a feature for Android 17 that will reduce motion sickness. The system works by giving a visual cue to the eyes to match the motion detected by the inner ear and reduce sickness systems stemming from the conflict between the two.

This sort of technology isn't new, in fact I tested it recently on an Honor phone and found that it bought sweet relief from a very common set of symptoms. The problem often occurs when concentrating on a static object – like your phone screen – while not being visually aware of how the vehicle you're in is moving.

The simple addition of moving dots on a screen replicates the movement of the vehicle and sees a reduction in those nausea feelings – as seen in the image above.

This sort of motion sickness feature was included in iOS 18 and now Android Authority says that it's heading for Android 17 too. Said to be called Motion Cues, it uses a similar system of dots on the display to mirror the motion of the vehicle and bring back sensory harmony.

For the Android version, it looks like the user might be able to choose the style and colours of the markers on the screen. It also looks like it could be automated, so will come on when it's detected that the user is in a vehicle.

We've known that it's been in Google's plans for some time, but it hasn't made any progress and Android Authority now says that's due to it using Android's standard overlay API. That means it can't draw over the top of certain elements of the phone, so it ends up not being visible all the time.

The solution, it seems, is to give Motion Cues a system-level API, which is what has been uncovered in a recent Android build. This will also mean that other apps can't tap into this API and start dumping stuff all over the top of other essential elements. Unfortunately, to change this overlay API, a new version of Android is needed – hence the delay.

Having used the feature on Honor phones, I can't wait for this to become a standard Android feature on the best Android phones. Not only is it a simple solution, but it can increase productivity in certain situations. I now use KineStop – a third-party solution – but find that the automatic options for it aren't the most accurate, so it's a bit fiddly at the moment.

What I'd really like, however, is a system that adds the same motion sickness reduction to laptops too.