I LOVE having my glucose displayed on my Apple Watch!
Any tips worth sharing?
I’d specifically love to know if others with Applewatch/Dexcom combo have figured out an ideal way to get alerts at night - I DO want to receive an alert if I’m high, or about to hit an urgent low, but I want it to vibrate on my watch, not also wake my husband with an audible alarm or rattling phone.
When I tried using Sleep Schedule (loved the haptic “tap” wake-up alarm and other features) nothing goes to my watch and it is my phone that vibrates and wakes my husband before me. So now it stays awake night with Do Not Disturb OFF on the watch to ensure the alerts get through. I’m not sure if my phone being on Do Not Disturb will keep it quiet for everything else and still keep texts from waking me in the night. I’m hoping it is only Dexcom that will “breakthrough with notifications”.
There are so many ways to configure things I’m not at all sure I have the right things off and on in the watch setting, the phone settings and the Dexcom app settings (though I’ve followed all the guide suggestions).
Would love to hear what you do that’s woking well, especially if you are trying to avoid waking a sleeping partner in bed with you!
Aidan
PS I’m using the Modular display that always has my glucose as a “complication” on the main face, love it (though I tap the app to see it totally up to date - I couldn’t get the Sugarmate app appear on the watch, only my phone, because I’m in Canada perhaps?)
My dexcom lags to my watch. Don’t know why but when I ok at it it usually has —— and the a few seconds later it pulls the number. It’s irritating.
I got sugarmate to do it and keep it on my watch all the time, but recently dexcom cut them off so I’m back to the direct dexcom feed and it’s still irritating
Yes, frustrating to not have Sugarmate, as I’d hoped to have. Just a Canadian problem, is that right? Americans can still use it? I read somewhere it was temporary, and to look for it again in 2022. Arg.
And though one can customize how you get alerts in many apps so it does not “mirror” the phone (for messages, calendar etc) , it looks like when I select the watch app on my phone and try to change Dexcom, Dexcom the only option is to “show app on apple watch” with no customizable options to have haptics only for my alerts, so I guess my phone will always also buzz.
Thanks for the reply!
It was killed in the US as well on Nov 4.
The dexcom ap on my watch is just lagged. Sugarmate used the calendar as a work around and it updated every min.
The dexcom ap updates every5 min which would be enough, but the watch doesn’t get the info until you open it, then it pings your phone and then finally gets a response.it ends up being a 10to15 sec delay
That kind of defeats the purpose of having it on my watch where I want a quick peek at my glucose
You should be able to have the notifications appear only on the watch and not the phone if you have the watch on and have the settings set that way, but I doubt the subtle tapping on your wrist would wake you.
But I have another solution, I wear one of my AirPods in my ear when I sleep so if the phone is sounding an alert, it is only audible in my ear and my wife doesn’t hear anything. If I am laying with my left ear on the pillow I have the AirPod in the right ear, it is a bit uncomfortable to have the AirPod pressed against the pillow. I wake up and switch the side I am laying on after a few hours and usually switch to the other AirPod when I do. I started this because I like to listen to a podcast or tranquil music to fall asleep to, but getting the Dexcom alerts is the reason I keep them in all night.
Timothy, I find if I leave the Dexcom app open and displayed on the watch it stays up to date, never more than 5 minutes behind the phone. The Watch OS does limit how often complications can update to conserve battery and I really wish I could turn this conservative behavior off, but I am used to keeping the app open when I am needing current readings.
As a follow up. My watch is a Fitbit. So it’s blue toothed from my phone. So as one person asked why not just look ar the phone. Answer the phone is on a night stand charging , just out of reach . I uses to keep the Dexcom meter under my pillow… I wake up swip the clock face and have my reading. I do wish the developer of the watch app would have included a trending arrow.
I have an Apple Watch. I have it set up to alarm at 170 or 55.
It vibrates on my wrist. It has the glucose value and the trend and even the delta( change since last reading)
Our 12 year old T1D has an apple watch and she says it lags behind her phone. Not by much (and no more than our phones on the Follow app I guess). At night her watch is on the charger and her phone is her source for alerts. It doesn’t wake her up but either her phone from her room or our phones next to us will wake us up.
But the watch is nice for her to have so she can glance at it… It will display “–” for a little bit before showing the actual number and that’s what she complains about but it’s a series 3 watch so I don’t know if that has anything to do with the lag.
I know what is on the screen was accurate recently… but I know it has a lag so I always touch the number displayed (on “Modular” screen for me) and it brings me to the Dexcom app where the number is immediately updated, and shows the graph of the last hour. Especially if there is an arrow suggesting I’m rising or dropping.
The dexcom ap on the Apple Watch is useless in my opinion. It doesn’t update and it often takes 30 sec to grab a number and instead shows - - - .
I use sugarmate for my Apple Watch. It grabs the dexcom data and sends it through the calendar and into any watchface that has calendar display.
It works really well. And I also can see it on all my apple devices because it’s in the calendar.
It shows the value and the trend arrow and the delta( +4 or -2 or whatever)
It also tells you if the data is current or if it’s old in the case of not being close to your phone, so you know there is a delay.
But if my phone is anywhere near me it’s reading the exact same as my dexcom.
There’s a couple of Dexcom faces for Fitbit. I use the one that just shows the present value. This is blue-toothed. from my iPhone I use it only at night as it is easier to look at the watch then to reach across the night table and pick up the phone. Only draw back you have to verify that you “sinc” the Fitbit app prior to going to bed.
Sorry for replying to this old post but I could not figure out how to start a new post. I got an Apple Series 7 watch. I started with the Series 7 without cellular and was very happy with it, because it did what I needed. It gave me my blood sugar, while I swim. I have been trying to find a way to get this for over a decade ago. I wasn’t interested in the Apple watch, until I learned it could do this.
Anyway, after about a month of swimming without any significant issues getting my blood sugar (the sensor needs to be placed where it’s under water the least-that’s it!) my family convinced me that I should get the cellular hooked up to my plan, so that I could use the watch without the phone. I did this today and initially it stopped the Dexcom from working with the watch. I took it home and played with it and now it’s working again but if I go more than 20 feet away, it does not transmit my blood sugars. The phone works-just not the Dexcom. This is a waste for me, as I only bought it, to use with the Dexcom(G6).
I am hoping someone else has already figured out how to fix this (or knows if it can’t be fixed). The woman at the AT&T store suggested I contact the Geek Squad. I think the answer would be better from someone (or group) familiar with the application. I appreciate any help. Thank you!
The technology to go from dexcom to watch has not been released yet. At least last time I checked. It has nothing to do with the Bluetooth connection or the cellular connectivity of your watch. The “ direct to watch thing is something we have all been waiting for “
There is work around though now that you have a cellular watch.
Down load sugarmate to your phone and set up the Apple Watch section which involves creating a new calendar.
Then your data comes in on the watch face complication where the date usually is.
This way you can get your calendar/ glucose levels anywhere you have cellular, so your watch can be far from you.
The SugarMate to Cloud to Calendar to watch only works if there is unlimited cellular data. That’s something I can’t afford. It is great at home with WiFi, but I rely on Dexcom app to watch when out.
Thanks Timothy, I also understood it was that Dexcom hasn’t got the tech yet, that long awaited connection direct to watch. And like Luis3, I also expect it will only be a benefit if it is using bluetooth/Wifi, not cellular. Fingers crossed.
These objects are only 24" apart, wouldn’t it be great if they spoke directly!
=)
