G6 does not work well with Apple Watch

I picked up my 5 today. Biggest difference is the larger screen. Sugarmate works great. I haven’t charged tp 100% yet, so Dexcom doesn’t work at all yet.

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Sugarmate works great on my new S5, but ideally, I’d like the complication to be a little bigger and not use the only multi-line complication slot. Has there been any discussion of why it has to include more than just the latest reading? Are there any other apps that get around the update limitations in a smaller complication slot?

The two things I wanted most were the always-on display and the larger screen.

That’s my only gripe as well. My guess? It’s linked to the Calendar app so it has to be associated with a calendar event. If you touch the Complication you see it.

I’ve had the new model less than 24 hours, and I’ve already turned off the always-on display. With it on, the screen brightens when you lift your wrist, and it just didn’t add anything to me whether it was brightening from a dimly lit display or a black display. For my purposes, it was purely a cosmetic thing, so I figured why waste the battery life? I didn’t encounter a situation where I needed to see the display without lifting my wrist. I’ll probably try it some more, though, to see if my first impressions are wrong.

All of a sudden, Sugarmate quit working, and my watch says, “No more events, Your day is clear.” Not sure what happened.

To each his own, you have your opinion and I have mine, but I find it strange that you titled this thread “G6 DOES NOT WORK WELL WITH APPLE WATCH” when the only issue is that sometimes, some-times, you have to tap the Dexcom complication to see your number, and when you do make the herculean effort to tap the complication you also get to see your recent trend line graph at a 6HR, 3HR or 1HR scale. On your watch. Without doing a finger stick. But yeah, tapping that complication is really grueling…

And then when you get the series 5 watch who’s display is always on, displaying your number live 24/7, irregardless of what your hands may be doing, with no need to stop what you are doing and raise your wrist to have the display turn on, you of course turn that feature off because, you know, battery life. Battery life? I get 2 full days of battery on my series 5, with always on display, no problem. Apple designed an always on strategy that does not kill your battery, you do not have to turn that feature off.

Again, to each his own, but for me the Dexcom G6 on an Apple Watch series 5 is freaking amazing and is a miracle of modern science. It has increased my ability to monitor, understand and manage my diabetes by a factor of 10. I think it is important for people considering this combination to know that not everyone thinks that occasionally having to tap the complication means this solution “DOES NOT WORK WELL”

Minor mention - this won’t help you but I thought it was useful to share - I have a very old Asus ZenWatch 2 that I recently resurrected from a desk drawer, paired with a new DexCom G6, and a Samsung 10+, and so far it is working perfectly. The only issue is the lack of good watch faces on Android - there is 1 - and it does not work as a complication. The only option for seeing the current glucose level easily is the default DexCom Android face.

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MrMontag, first of all: Welcome to the community!

To clarify some of your criticisms of my thread, I did not mean to imply that the G6 doesn’t work well with ALL (I see you love using all caps) Apple Watches, only my S2. I think if you read my post, I am asking for advice regarding my ageing watch. I am glad you are so pleased with the way the G6 is functioning with your watch, but my results have not been flawless, and why shouldn’t one expect flawless, as most other apps work that way. Tapping the complication did not always provide a reading with my S2, either. Quite often, I got no reading or line graph. If you had read my post more carefully, you would have seen that I did not turn off AOD simply to save battery life. I was replying to an earlier post asking what I liked about the S5. Since AOD (always-on display) is a PRETTY BIG SELLING POINT for the S5 over the considerably cheaper S4, I provided my impressions of AOD. To reiterate, tapping the complication, WHICH I AM NOT TOO LAZY TO DO, was not the answer to my issue, as quite often tapping the complication did not provide a reading, either. Thus, my question to the board trying to determine whether it was my watch or some other issue. Again, WELCOME TO THE COMMUNITY!

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How close does your phone have to be to send glucose readings to the Apple Watch? I wear a Dexcom G 6, have an iPhone and am thinking about testing myself to an Apple Watch. Want to consider drawbacks and positives before making such a large purchase.

I believe that the apple watch can communicate with your iphone from very far apart if they are on the same wifi.

But, when you are using the Apple Watch with your Dexcom it’s the phone that receives the transmission from the CGM, so, to get your BG readings, you have to keep your phone near you all the time. It’s a bluetooth connection. If unobstructed, it can transmit across a room or two but not much further. If you have your phone in a pocket, it’s best if that pocket is on the same side as the CGM since the signal doesn’t transmit well across or through your body.

I like the G6 on the Apple Watch. It frees you from having to pull out your phone, but it doesn’t free you from having the phone nearby, if that’s what you were hoping…

I have an Android/Dexcom pairing, but the connection is Bluetooth so that is possibly 30 feet, but I believe that that will be limited by having the signal go through walls or one’s body.

Correct, if both are on the same wifi network the watch doesn’t need to be in Bluetooth range of the phone.

. . . But it does have to be within Bluetooth range of the Dexcom transmitter

My phone service doesn’t allow cloud access when on cell data. That means SugarMate only works when my phone is connected to WiFi.

If you have in limited data, you may need to go into settings and turn on cloud access on cell data.

Yes turn off Wi-Fi acces on your watch and it will work again