How to Turn Off Parallax Effect in iOS 8

iOS 8 was released last month with a wealth of new features, but one feature that remains unchanged from iOS 7 is the infamous parallax effect.

The parallax effect was first introduced in iOS 7 and was a new feature that also makes its way to iOS 8. Essentially, it gives your iPhone or iPad’s home screen a neat 3D look, so when you move your device around in your hand while keeping your head still, it looks like you’re looking “around” the app icons onto the wallpaper, almost like you’re looking through a window out onto the iOS 8 world.

However, the feature is really nothing more than the gyroscope and accelerometer working together to create the illusion that you’re looking through a 3D window, and while it can be impressive for some users, most users will lose the wow factor in just a few days.

Furthermore, some users with severe motion sickness might find it makes their stomach a little queasy when they see the parallax effect in action, and it doesn’t help that iOS 8 is full of all kinds of animations that could also trigger motion sickness.

Because of this, it’s probably best for many users to disable the parallax effect feature in iOS 8. Plus, it’s probably hogging up processing resources, thus decreasing battery life, but the good news is that you can disable the feature very easily.

Turn Off Parallax Effect

While it’s easy to turn off, it’s actually extremely difficult to find in the settings if you’re looking for “parallax effect,” as you won’t find it anywhere in the Settings app.

To turn off the parallax effect, simply navigate to Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion.

 

Tapping on Reduce Motion will open up another screen with a toggle switch. By default, the toggle switch will be grayed out. Just tap on the switch to turn Reduce Motion on, thus turning the toggle switch green and turning off parallax effect.

It’s definitely hard to get to if you don’t know what you’re looking for, and as weird as it may seem, the setting isn’t under “Parallax Effect,” but rather “Reduce Motion,” which isn’t really the phrase you’ll be looking for if you’re scanning for the words “parallax effect.”

In any case, after you locate the setting, you can turn it on and you’ll no longer see your home screen move around in front of you. Furthermore, Reduce Motion also disables the app icons from flying in when you unlock your device, as well as when you’re switching between apps. Instead, the motion will be reduced to simple fades in and out.

Other Accessibility Features

Turning off parallax effect requires that you go into the Accessibility features, but while you’re there, it may be worth checking out some of the other accessibility features that you can enable, even if you aren’t handicapped in any way.

• Zoom: Even if you can see just fine, smartphone screens are still small, and sometimes text or images can be hard to read. You can enable zooming options here.
• Invert Colors: This will invert the colors of iOS, and since all the menus are white, this provides a good “night mode” when using iOS 7, providing a black theme instead.
• Grayscale: This feature turns your entire screen black and white, getting rid of all color, which can essentially give you better battery life.
• Speech: This menu has a feature called “Speak Selection,” which can read aloud any text you select. Great for reading aloud articles natively while you do some chores.
• Larger Text: It can be nice to have larger text on the iPhone. Even if your eyesight is good, larger text is always easier on the eyes.
• On/Off Labels: This feature adds the I/O letters to toggle switches, providing a neat UI aesthetic to iOS 8.
• LED Flash for Alerts: One thing Android users love is LED notifications, and iPhone users can enable these in iOS 8.
• Phone Noise Cancellation: This feature reduces ambient noise while you’re on a phone call so that you can hear the other person more clearly.
• Subtitles & Captioning: Subtitles aren’t just for people who are hard of hearing. You can enable them here and have them show up in videos when available.
• Guided Access: This feature can restrict your iPhone to just one app, as well as disable parts of the screen or turn off any of the hardware buttons. This makes it great if you ever hand over your device to a friend or child.
• AssistiveTouch: This is meant to help people who have problems navigating using the touch screen, but it can also be used for creating your own set of custom gestures.
• Home-click Speed: You can change the speed at which you double-click on the Home button to suit your needs.