Google gives Pixel phones an answer to Apple’s Motion Cues

Google is rolling out a new Motion Assist feature on Android 17, and its starting with Pixels first. This new feature is a tool aimed at helping users deal with motion sickness and moving vehicles. Apple offered a similar feature on iPhones with Motion Cues on iOS 18 in 2024.

The Motion Assist feature was spotted by Android Authority, and it essentially allows your Pixel phone to display moving shapes while in a moving vehicle. The point of this feature is to reduce motion sickness while in a vehicle. You can set Motion Assist to enable automatically when you're in a moving vehicle by engaging the accelerometer or you can add it to your quick settings tile so you can manually enable it by pulling down the quick settings pane.

Motion Assist is available in Google Play settings under Settings > your profile > all services if it's enabled on your device. It can be found on some Pixel phones running Android 17, though it's not widely available yet.

A bevy of helpful features 

Google's Pixel phones are typically stocked with features aimed at solving common needs, from Now Playing (which is apparently getting a small boost to add notifications), to vibe-coded widgets, and now Motion Assist. Google's hell bent on making sure the Pixel stands out as a phone that helps you in your day to day life, despite its foibles with performance and gaming, and that's respectable as a differentiator. 

Still, not every feature can be helpful, as Google's HiLight dimming the flashlight demonstrates. Some, like this Motion Assist feature, definitely feel more targeted towards solving real problems. Hopefully it rolls out to more Android phones running Android 17 soon.