Dexcom G6 Low Alert Interval

I have a Dexcom G6 with my “Low” alert set to 80. There is also a setting for “Repeat every x minutes”.

Even though the selection shows 0,5,15,20,etc… it will not let me select 5 or 10. It will just switch to 0 or 15.

0 = never report.
15 = repeat alert every 15 minutes.

Why can’t I repeat the alert every 5 or 10 minutes? The setting is there but the app won’t let me pick it.

Thank you in advance

You might want to give xDrip a try. I do not like the Dexcom phone app one bit. OTOH, if you have an iPhone, xDrip is not an option.

Yeah, I have iPhone so no xDrip. I should see what other options exist in the iOS world. The dexcom app is very reliable for me but limited in features.

the worst part for me is that the official app has no widget for the home screen. I’ll post an image of my S7’s home screen in a bit…

IMO, much better than having to get into the Dexcom app. AND, the data appears on my Gear 2 watch.

Ignore the “21”. that’s just a notification count, which stops at 100, but the data will keep updating. There is nothing the user has to do to see that screen. It just updates every 5 minutes, using Android Notifcations. It stays on the screen for a bit, and if you miss it (ie, the home screen with clock is showing), just click “Notifications”, “xDrip” to see the number.

Last but not least, NO APP IS REQUIRED ON THE WATCH.

Probably 90% of the time I just use the watch to monitor my sugar. The Dexcom app works well but I do wish it had more features. For example my watch/phone monitor my walking/exercise. I wish dexcom would hook into that instead of me manually adding every time I walk.

I also wish the Dexcom events specially food allowed me to enter a short note. Just putting in the carbs later on I might forget what I ate. Being able to track what I ate might help me overtime realize when I’ve miscalculated my carbs.

Phone Widget


Watch App
image
Watch Face Widget
image

This is what iOS phone/watch look like

on the watch,does it show without doing anything other than rotating your wrist to wake up the screen? That’s how mine works, which is super-convienent. I don’t like having to interact much to see readings which is why I don’t want a touchscreen Dexcom receiver. Too much touching to see the numbers. Just one button-push on the non-touch receiver to see the readings. I have my watch set (sometimes) to make a little “ding” to tell me it’s got a new (every 5 minutes) reading. I can also have my phone TALK my readings, using xDrip. THAT IS THE COOLEST FEATURE, IMO. It has saved me from countless lows when I’m working or walking/hiking.

almost forgot, xDrip lets you change the talk feature from 4 minutes to a very lengthy interval. I usually set it around 6-9 minutes.

The apple watch does update automatically but sometimes its been a while since it received an update so the reading says “–”. In that case you have to tap the “–” and the Dexcom watch app opens and updates.

I believe this isn’t a Dexcom short coming but a very aggressive battery management Apple’s watch OS enforces. Apps can only schedule updates to the watch but iOS/WatchOS will only push the updates every few minutes to conserve batter.

If you open an app it will trigger and update.

Really would rather be able to tell the watch to update that app more often at the cost of battery but its not a big deal so far.

The phone/watch both send notifications when certain events happen like high, low, or fast change in reading. Those I always get right away in sync with the 5 minute Dexcom updates. If everything is OK then there are no notifications.

You can try Spike, it’s an “iOS version of xDrip”, although much better looking, which is the usual case when comparing iOS with Android.
I have tried it and it works perfectly fine, it will not force you to change the sensor every 10 days either. It is also easy to integrate in any DYI loop systems.

Has anyone noticed that G6 is much more pressure sensitive than G5 for example?

I never had a G5 but with the G6 I would say it is sensitive to pressure. If I lay on the sensor for a 10+ minutes I will often get a false low.

Then I’ll hate the G6 as that’s one of the primary issues I had with Enlites. My G5 doesn’t give false lows when I’m sleeping. Enlites would show false lows every night for about a year. Talk about a sleep deficit that year!!

I have the sensor on the side/back of my arm. If I sleep on my side with the sensor within 10-20 minutes it will read low. I’ve gotten pretty good about not sleeping on the side of the sensor but it is annoying.

Dave, my wife just bought me a Series 3 Apple Watch just for my sugars, but 80% of the time that I check my Watch Face all I see is the

And then if I click on the to open the G6 widget, I have to spin the Watch dial for Dexcom to “wake up” and show me my sugars that my iPhone widget was displaying the entire time.

I called Dexcom and Apple about it and they weren’t helpful at all “delete and reinstall the app” :frowning:

I even returned the watch because of this and got another one, but it’s just as bad.

You/anyone else ever had this problem? Is there something obvious I’m missing?

Thanks for any help!

@bort269

Apple watch allows third parties like Dexcom to make “complications” aka apps for the watch.

The complications are the view of the app you can put on a watch face.

My understanding is apple is very restrictive in how often apps can request to update values on the watch.

Dexcom can request to update the watch but Apple is only going to do it so many times per-hour to conserve battery. I think Dexcom is likely doing their best to be accurate by displaying “–”. It seems to do that when the watch has not received and update for more than 15-20 minutes. That makes sense because you don’t want to make decisions based on old readings.

There could be a bug in Dexcom’s watch complication but its mostly and issue of Apple being overly protective to the battery of the watch.

I wish they would allow me to approve Dexcom to update as often as needed in trade for battery life.

This is very technical but there is some discussion about watch complications in general here.

They briefly talk about a watch app exhausting its budget for a given time period.

I’m a software developer so I do understand why these restrictions are in place but I still wish they provided me some way to relax it per-app.

Still I’ve been using the watch to track my sugar and prefer it to taking out my phone. When in meetings or talking to someone at work checking the watch is much less intrusive.

Another trick I have is once the Dexcom app is open on the watch if I rotate my wrist away (screen off), then back toward myself the Dexcom app seems to update 95% of the time.

Thanks Chris… I’ll try that out.
I actually don’t mind having to tap the Watch Face to open the App, but what bugs me the most is having to refresh the screen by scrolling the dial. I wish it would just update the App as soon as I open the app!

I agree, it seems like a bug to me. I’m just not sure if its Apple’s but or Dexcom’s bug.