iOS 7 Visual Effects Reportedly Making Some Users Sick

Updates can do many things to a smartphone: They can make it better! They can brick it! They can radically transform the way you're typically used to doing things!

And in the case of some users of Apple's latest mobile update, iOS 7, they can apparently… make you sick?

If it sounds a little too good to be believed, well, that's exactly what we thought when we first started seeing the news that Apple's iOS 7 is allegedly making some of its users a little dizzy. According to new reports from The Verge, Good Morning America, and USA Today, the update seems to be triggering a bit of motion sickness, nausea, and other complications in a subset of its users — including those already afflicted with various issues – like vertigo – and those who just haven't been used to so much motion on their handheld devices.

But don't take our word for it.

"The zoom animations everywhere on the new iOS 7 are literally making me nauseous and giving me a headache. It's exactly how I used to get car sick if I tried to read in the car," writes a user on Apple's Support forums.

"I thought I was going crazy today after I updated my phone and I noticed I was feeling queasy every time I used it. Now I see I am not alone! I just used my phone for about 20 minutes and now I feel like I'm going to vomit. There has to be a way to turn this off," writes another.

If it's any consolation to affected users, iOS 7 does contain quite a bit more fancy motion than Apple's predecessor OS. Including on that list is Apple's new zest for parallax effects, which shifts the icons around depending on the angle at which you're holding the phone to your face — creating the illusion of icons actively "floating" overtop your background. If this is giving you a bit of a headache, you can always try turning off the effect within the iPhones Settings > General > Accessibility menu (look for the "Reduce Motion" option).

Unfortunately, that option does only disable your iPhone's Parallax motion. The rest of the operating system's visual add-ons, including its frequent zooming and sliding during one's various app transitions, remain constant. Which is to say, if you're one of those who find yourself affected by the increased amount of motion in iOS 7, perhaps you might need to switch out to an iOS 6-equipped iPhone.

Switch, we note; Not downgrade.

"If Apple wants to truly cater to users with disabilities, it must look more closely at which features cause difficulties, make more effort to listen to users who find them hard to use, and enable them to be more comfortable," said Macworld's Kirk McElhearn in an interview with The Guardian.