It’s not magic. You don’t need to be an engineer to use this stuff, but like all diabetes management tech, the more you learn about what it can do, the better use you can make of it.
For example I now have Xdrip+ set to display a widget on my home screen, my glucose in the Android status bar and also on my lock screen. My phone can be locked and I can see my glucose if I’m wondering. (The pump and CGM alarms work all the time,)
That’s overkill for most people , but I’m a borderline perfectionist (95% is good enough), I’ve only been using a CGM and pump for 4 months, and I’m still refining my protocol. I will be until I can get through a week needing to make more than one correction per day. The redundant displays lets me see the glucose any time I look at the phone. At night I can have the app off, the screen set to the dimmest level and locked, tap the screen and see my glucose in the middle of the night without turning in the lights or being overloaded by the screen brightness. I haven’t had an alarm at night since I got the G6 set right, but I’m still getting used to being able to sleep through without worrying. A 40 year long habit is hard to shake.
The hardest things about Xdrip+ are uploading the app from outside the Google Play Store, installing the Android app, (no Apple version available) and disconnecting the Dexcom Apple app. The Xdrip+ app connects to the G6’s second Bluetooth channel just like the Apple app would, but only one “auxiliary display” can connect at a time. Maybe the G7 will change that.
If you want, you can enter a time, BG, carbs and calculate or insert an insulin value. It can upload to Dexcom’s server and share. I don’t normally use that because I have a Tandem pump which automatically captures the first 3 and calculates the insulin, but it’s a nice backup and a way for me to test settings, boluses and other things when I’m trying to adjust my protocol when ill or my metabolism has been disrupted by a procedure. :-C
I don’t need/want to share, but XDrip+ has an emergency alert function with GPS location data that neither Dexcom nor Tandem had in their last versions. It also has better trend predictions than either. I tested it with my wife once and was told to turn it off.
I get my reports from Tandem online, but don’t usually care -I know how I’ve been doing with Xdrips’ continuous 24 hour stats. History and period statistics are directly available from it, but if I were to set up Dexcom as a cloud data recipient, I could use their web site report generator as well.
btw, Most of what you see in the commercial products is modeled after what was in use for years, developed by groups of impatient patients with diabetes who were tired of waiting forever for “in just 10 years” . Like SpaceX they did their own trials on themselves and rapid iteration like Tesla and SpaceX.
If you want to go this route and need help getting started, I can answer questions here or via another medium, or just direct you to where I found what I use.
In any case, “I’m pulling for you. We’re all in this together. Keep your stick on the ice”, Steve Smith as Red Green
Dang it! I should be able to get the phone I want, that’s a big expense after all, and have it be compatible with the Dexcom.
)
But since most of that sounded like Latin to me, it seems like it. 
