Defective Device
I’ve just upgraded from the Libre 2 to a Libre 3 with this app. I’ve used the 2 for a couple of years so I’m very familiar with it. I’m on day five of using the 3 and it has been dramatically inaccurate. I’ve had 3 false low alarms (below 70) with finger stick readings above 110. Readings jump erratically and illogically. I already had IOS 18 on my phone. I’ve called Abbott and escalated 3 times. They say that it’s really not a problem with IOS 18 except that it may be inaccurate for the first 24 hours but it should okay after that. Abbott told me that the “industry standard” is that the sensor reading should be within 30% of a finger stick reading but this sensor should be no more than 20% off. Again, I’m at day 5 and I’m still getting readings well out of that range. I’m a retired full professor teaching research methods and biostatistics at a flagship state university in Florida. I’m preparing a report for the FDA to document this sensor/app as a defective medical device. I’ve working with United Healthcare to reach out to the organization that sold me the unit.
Also, the alarm is too soft to wake me up like my regular iPhone alarms do and Abbott seems to have no clue about how to change to a louder alarm. I keep my phone volume at max. It was fine with the 2.
I could not issue a stronger warning against the Libre 3 and this app. Please use a finger stick check before making any decisions based on the these readings.
Also, the alarm is too soft to wake me up like my regular iPhone alarms do and Abbott seems to have no clue about how to change to a louder alarm. I keep my phone volume at max. It was fine with the 2.
I could not issue a stronger warning against the Libre 3 and this app. Please use a finger stick check before making any decisions based on the these readings.
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Response from developer
We'd like to follow up with this. Please give us a call at 855-632-8658 so we can better assist.
More disappointing than my blood sugar
I am supposed to be using this to help monitor my blood sugar as a medical assessment review period. However. Out of 4 units, only 2 of them have worked! And both stopped working on a Friday within hours of application & activation and there’s nothing u can do about it until customer service opens up on Monday and then it takes 5 days to get a replacement! That’s a week that I’ve lost valuable time of monitoring! It just lost signal again, on a Saturday morning. So I have to go all weekend again with no monitor (blood test strips do not provide the feedback & pattern monitoring we are tracking) and I’m leaving town Sunday night! So this is extremely frustrating and very disappointing!
I’m also extremely disappointed that I have no control over the data visibility in the graphing!! It would be very helpful if I could scroll back & forth and see actual glucose levels at any point on the graph and if the data were more user friendly, revealing and interactive. It would also be helpful to be able to go in and add notes at any point and have them appear in the correct place on the timeline. There is no feature control there. This is also very frustrating!
I’m also extremely disappointed that I have no control over the data visibility in the graphing!! It would be very helpful if I could scroll back & forth and see actual glucose levels at any point on the graph and if the data were more user friendly, revealing and interactive. It would also be helpful to be able to go in and add notes at any point and have them appear in the correct place on the timeline. There is no feature control there. This is also very frustrating!
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Response from developer
Thank you for your comment. Please contact our Customer Care team at 855-632-8658 so we can better assist.
Can’t turn off alarms. Inaccurately wakes me up all night.
Update. After using for six weeks the third sensor ended in the middle of the night, cutting out about three hours of use, based on when I applied the last, and then the app froze on “you must be an adult”. After applying a new sensor, the app remained frozen. Tried turning on and off my phone. That didn’t help. I had to uninstall the app and reinstall, losing all my history data.
Here’s my original review. No changes since my review: You can’t turn off certain alarms in this version, so the app keeps waking me up. The problem is I’m a side sleeper so the sensor regularly loses connectivity or senses an inaccurate low reading. I have resorted to turning off my Bluetooth in order to get any sleep. When turning on my Bluetooth in the morning it won’t connect unless I reopen the app and wait three minutes. Thankfully, the sensor seems to have some built in memory, so it generally charts my nighttime numbers once I reconnect. I also dislike the fact that I can no longer take an immediate reading. It’s nice that the app reads the sensor every few minutes, but sometime you need to know right away and don’t have the luxury of staring at your phone for a few minutes in order to get a current reading. Fix these few things and it will be a great app. Not sure what can be done about the inaccurate readings when sleeping on my side, but I can live with that since I’m pretty consistent with my night numbers.
Here’s my original review. No changes since my review: You can’t turn off certain alarms in this version, so the app keeps waking me up. The problem is I’m a side sleeper so the sensor regularly loses connectivity or senses an inaccurate low reading. I have resorted to turning off my Bluetooth in order to get any sleep. When turning on my Bluetooth in the morning it won’t connect unless I reopen the app and wait three minutes. Thankfully, the sensor seems to have some built in memory, so it generally charts my nighttime numbers once I reconnect. I also dislike the fact that I can no longer take an immediate reading. It’s nice that the app reads the sensor every few minutes, but sometime you need to know right away and don’t have the luxury of staring at your phone for a few minutes in order to get a current reading. Fix these few things and it will be a great app. Not sure what can be done about the inaccurate readings when sleeping on my side, but I can live with that since I’m pretty consistent with my night numbers.
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Response from developer
We'd like to follow up with this. Please give us a call at 1-855-632-8658 so we can better assist.
Good but needs improvement
This is a fantastic thing to have and even more so that the sensors are so little. However they also have just about no ability to react to spiking or plummeting blood sugars. It kicks you off for 10 minutes at a time and then starts showing the number again not long before going back to “Sensor Error” again. This is outrageous. The other day I had to take off a sensor that should have had two days left on it because it stopped working and actually told me to take it off and this happened because of its inability to deal with low blood sugar and the app being killed during it to shut it up. Also with iOS 18 about to drop any day now, it would’ve been nice to have a little note included with this most recent update as to whether the app will be compatible with iOS 18 or not. There is little to no excuse for the aforementioned kind of thing happening and please do not write back to me to thank me and tell me to contact customer service. It should be your job to pass this info along and if it is not your job then tell them they need to hire someone to, I don’t have time to deal with phone calls to this place every single time something goes wrong with this which is fairly frequently. Thank you, probably for nothing but I will wait and see.
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Response from developer
Thanks for your comment. Please give our customer care team a call at 1-855-632-8658 so we can help.
Works ok with flaws
I recently started using the Libre3 system. The app works ok but often becomes disconnected from the sensor unless I keep my phone within 10-15 feet. Also, there is an inherent flaw. Some diabetics like myself have some vision issues. I find the color of the preferred range, being a very faint green, is too light to see. It looks like the white background. It needs to be a few shades darker and/or have a line at the uppermost end of that range. It could also be improved by making suggestions to help people get their glucose down to within the good range when it is elevated for too long.
Last, the app has the data displayed at 12 hour view. It shouldn’t be difficult to have a vertical bar that users could move to any point on the graph to see the data there. As it is we have to guesstimate what the reading is at any particular time.
I’ve also wanted yo be able yo go back and add a note, food, or insulin dose. It can only be done at that moment. I had dinner out with family recently. I wasn’t about yo be on my phone throughout dinner to do it but you can’t go back either.
Last, the app has the data displayed at 12 hour view. It shouldn’t be difficult to have a vertical bar that users could move to any point on the graph to see the data there. As it is we have to guesstimate what the reading is at any particular time.
I’ve also wanted yo be able yo go back and add a note, food, or insulin dose. It can only be done at that moment. I had dinner out with family recently. I wasn’t about yo be on my phone throughout dinner to do it but you can’t go back either.
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Response from developer
Thanks for the comment. We'll need more information to help with this issue, so please contact our Customer Care team at 855-632-8658.
Background Refresh Broken?
This freestyle Libre 3 app doesn’t have the feature control switch listed in the section to control background refresh… not sure that’s why it continually loses signal and I have to leave the app open and active of my device to Not loose the signal. But it is suspicious!
AND… Really missing not being able to use Apple Watch stand alone… without rigging all the other apps to get the info on my watch… perhaps you are familiar…the option that requires you to Still carry your phone everywhere…and rely on three other apps(two additional companies) to feed the data to your watch…Doh!!! BUT… it’s NOW BROKEN even more… Now it’s worse, because with the app is constantly losing signal… it just breaks all the apps connected to it… signal loss alarms a blazing… annoying as ever and eating at my battery… regardless… because I have to keep my phone screen active and on… not to mention the awkward privacy concerns of having to always having the app open and HUGE displayed on my phone for everyone to see! I would delete and reinstall the app… but I don’t believe there is a way to reconnect the sensor I’ve already started 😩
Otherwise the tech is brilliant and it’s really super amazing and helpful to know your numbers without constantly dealing with bulk of a bag, the poking, and the endless sanitizing and cleanup… Abbott, please go that last mile to make this product 5 stars please!!!
AND… Really missing not being able to use Apple Watch stand alone… without rigging all the other apps to get the info on my watch… perhaps you are familiar…the option that requires you to Still carry your phone everywhere…and rely on three other apps(two additional companies) to feed the data to your watch…Doh!!! BUT… it’s NOW BROKEN even more… Now it’s worse, because with the app is constantly losing signal… it just breaks all the apps connected to it… signal loss alarms a blazing… annoying as ever and eating at my battery… regardless… because I have to keep my phone screen active and on… not to mention the awkward privacy concerns of having to always having the app open and HUGE displayed on my phone for everyone to see! I would delete and reinstall the app… but I don’t believe there is a way to reconnect the sensor I’ve already started 😩
Otherwise the tech is brilliant and it’s really super amazing and helpful to know your numbers without constantly dealing with bulk of a bag, the poking, and the endless sanitizing and cleanup… Abbott, please go that last mile to make this product 5 stars please!!!
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Response from developer
Thank you for your comment. Please contact our Customer Care team at 855-632-8658 so we can better assist.
Question
My app seems to take readings at different times when I wouldn’t expect it to. For example the current sensor I have on now I have been wearing for 7 days thus far and at times when I am constantly monitoring my number with the app screen open I will watch the standard clock on my wall to find out where the second hand of the clock is so I know at exactly what time to expect the reading. I assumed that because the sensor provides a reading every minute that the time would always be the same but on this sensor alone I’ve gotten readings at 10 seconds to the next rounded minute, 15 seconds, 35 seconds rounded to the next minute - all within the first 7 days I’ve been wearing this current sensor so I was just wondering what is it that changes the times around like that? I considered while I am away from my phone for a little while and come back near it and it says sensor error, that could be why but it seems like the sensor would just continue sending a reading every minute and the app (if that is what initiates receiving a reading) checking every minute so I was just curious if you knew why this happens. Thanks for reading and if you know the answer to this question and have a chance to respond I’d be grateful as well. Thank you!
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Response from developer
Thanks for the comment. We'll need more information to help with this issue, so please contact our Customer Care team at 1-855-632-8658.
Definitely valuable, but…
Having the ability to continuously monitor my blood glucose has been very valuable. For its limited capabilities, this app functions well. It doesn’t crash, or have other such problems that need fixing. It is just very limited and I want to share a list of wishes:
I wish that this app would communicate with Apple health. Apple health is what I use to track and manage all of my other health data. Now finding out that I’m diabetic is a huge health issue and I really need this data to be available along with all of my other health data in one place.
I wish this app worked with Apple Watch. The ability to view my latest glucose reading on my Apple Watch would be very valuable to me. Being able to receive notifications on my watch is a lot more private than letting my phone squelch when I need to know something so that everyone in the room also knows it.
I wish this app gave me more ways to view my historical glucose data. For example, I wish I could set up a report to show me the patterns over time of my morning glucose readings between certain hours, etc.
I’m going to stay with the Libre 3 for now and hope that Abbott is going to develop an expand the functionality. If they don’t I will eventually look at the other continuous monitoring options. There are several.
I wish that this app would communicate with Apple health. Apple health is what I use to track and manage all of my other health data. Now finding out that I’m diabetic is a huge health issue and I really need this data to be available along with all of my other health data in one place.
I wish this app worked with Apple Watch. The ability to view my latest glucose reading on my Apple Watch would be very valuable to me. Being able to receive notifications on my watch is a lot more private than letting my phone squelch when I need to know something so that everyone in the room also knows it.
I wish this app gave me more ways to view my historical glucose data. For example, I wish I could set up a report to show me the patterns over time of my morning glucose readings between certain hours, etc.
I’m going to stay with the Libre 3 for now and hope that Abbott is going to develop an expand the functionality. If they don’t I will eventually look at the other continuous monitoring options. There are several.
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Response from developer
Thanks for your feedback.
Reviewed With love and appreciation
As a diabetic this has changed my life for the better knowing where I am in order to make better choices regarding how many units to take and the freedom to travel without carrying a whole kit to check my blood … I am very thankful for that. There are issues that may be fixed with software because more often than not the meter goes on and off on readings not being available or the meter saying it lost connection Another thing I would love to request is how the app notifies, wish we could silent the sound as it can be very annoying at times . Abbott wants us to be notified and for that notification to not be ignore and I see the sense in that . But we should have an option for the sound to be silence if preferred. Another feature request would be to have better graphs as the readings progress through out the day similar to what we see in “Robinhood” the stock app would be golden Another feature would be once a dangerous reading is set off allow us to input whether we used units to bring blood sugar low or have had something to place sugar up and have the app give some time before making the decision to annoy again with it’s alarm a 15 min break would be ideal ABBOTT I LOVE YOU GUYS FOR MAKING THIS AFFORDABLE AND and have all this power in such a small SIZE . Consider adding this features and fix these bugs .
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Response from developer
Thanks for the comment. We'll need more information to help with this issue, so please contact our Customer Care team at 1-855-632-8658.
better than Libre 2
I just switched from the Libre 2 to Libre 3, and I like the Libre 3 a lot. The fact it will scan automatically, without pressing "scan" and then holding it next to the sensor, is very nice. (BTW, the Libre 2 app had gotten a lot more glitchy over the past 6 months or so before I switched over, but the Libre 3 app seems a lot less so. For example, the libre 2 lately would have a significant delay on the scanning function, and sometimes I'd have to try multiple times to get a successful scan. The Libre 2 was not always like that but it was getting pretty annoying the past few months. Anyway I haven't had any of those issues with the Libre 3. It automatically scans right when you open the app, with no delay, and almost always works the first try.)
One difference I've noticed between the Libre 2 & Libre 3 is, Libre 2 app would automatically add an entry to the logbook every time you scanned, with the time & blood sugar. And of course there was the option to add a note related to insulin, exercise, or miscellaneous. But the Libre 3 seems to *only* record an entry in the logbook if (a) it is the first scan you've made after crossing from target range into high/low range, or (b) if you add a comment. This is probably to avoid adding tons of logbook entries that you don't need. Some people may like this better, others may prefer the way the Libre 2 did it.
One difference I've noticed between the Libre 2 & Libre 3 is, Libre 2 app would automatically add an entry to the logbook every time you scanned, with the time & blood sugar. And of course there was the option to add a note related to insulin, exercise, or miscellaneous. But the Libre 3 seems to *only* record an entry in the logbook if (a) it is the first scan you've made after crossing from target range into high/low range, or (b) if you add a comment. This is probably to avoid adding tons of logbook entries that you don't need. Some people may like this better, others may prefer the way the Libre 2 did it.
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Response from developer
Thanks for your feedback.
