Samsung’s new app claims to alleviate motion sickness using sound

Samsung released a new free app today called Hearapy, now available for Android devices through the Google Play store, that it claims can reduce the symptoms of motion sickness using just sound.

The app’s functionality is very straightforward. It plays a low 100Hz sine wave tone through a pair of connected headphones for 60 seconds. This is supposed to stimulate the vestibular system — the parts of the inner ear that are responsible for orientation and maintaining balance. The app allows the duration of the tone to be adjusted between 40 and 120 seconds, but a full minute of listening is supposed to provide relief from motion sickeness symptoms like nausea for up to two hours. It can be repeated as needed.

Samsung says the app was inspired by research conducted by Nagoya University in Japan released last year that found specific sound wavelengths helped to reduce “the staggering and discomfort felt by people that were asked to read a document in a moving vehicle.” It’s not a guaranteed cure, however, and the effectiveness may vary based on the headphones you’re using. Samsung recommends pairing the app with its Galaxy Buds 4 Pro, but while Hearapy works with most headphones or earbuds, they need to be able to reproduce the tone at an 80 to 85-decibel volume level for it to be most effective.