I know about the modified version of the g6 app, and I have looking at a new Motorola one ace (5G) 2021 phone.
What I was in hopes to find out was if there are any users on here willing to specify his/her phone bought in the USA either late 2020 or in 2021, not on the approved list, and is using the phone just fine with the g6 apVp, and is the app modified version or not?
Thanks
I can’t answer your exact question because my devices are all at least 3 years old, and not what you’re looking for. But your exact question isn’t important. Buy whatever recent (or even not so recent) android phone you want, as you’ll be able to run the software.
There are NO phones which do not appear on their approved list and which magically just happen to work with the original Dexcom G6 app. It’s not about compatibility, but rather an active choice Dexcom made. There is a scanning element in the app that checks what phone you’re using, and actively blocks any phone that is not specifically supported.
The idiocy is that just about any Android phone is capable of running it, barring the ancient dinosaurs. That’s all the unlocked/build-your-own versions are. They’ve removed that scanning element so it doesn’t actively block you.
If you’re not married to Clarity (and your doctor can’t force you to be, since Dexcom actively blocks most Android users), I highly recommend Xdrip+ instead. It’s a much better app with way better features. You can program any alerts you want with whatever sound you want. You can have your BG constantly visible in your status bar, if you want (one of my favorite features), you can put your BG on your lock screen and/or always on display. There’s way more, too. Dexcom’s app is pretty lame. I don’t know if they’ve updated it, but they didn’t even have a widget last time I used it.
I have heard about xdrip+ on the Reddit site, and I have posted nearly the same question, but no response. In a Google search, I saw one person mention the Motorola ace one 5G on this site at some time. I thought I would post here, and hope I would get some responses here. Thanks for the input. I hope I didn’t misspell, I couldn’t see half of what I was typing because a box was blocking my view.
Bad part is I have never had a true smartphone, just flip phones, but so much has seemed to move towards using a smartphone for this and that, I thought I might as well get one.
Ah. I bet a lot of this stuff is overwhelming, then. It’s often hard to get feedback on a specific phone, because there are so many of them to choose from and a limited number of us. What you need to know is that app compatibility is really no concern at all with Android, as it’s pretty much the same between various devices, so long as it’s a modern app that’s currently being supported and updated by the people who make it. Minimum system requirements will usually include any Android phone manufactured after 2016 (version 7) and many will even run on older phones yet. The only times you’ll run into trouble is with the absolute newest versions of Android (we’re on v12 now). There’s always a slim chance that the people who make an app will be slow to update it and work out any kinks to make it compatible with the newest versions. They have plenty of warning, though, so it’s rare. That Motorola One 5G Ace comes with Android 10 installed on it, and there may be an update to Android 11. Either way, you’ll be good to run either Xdrip+ or the modified Dexcom G6 app.
I have absolutely no idea why Dexcom chose to limit supported phones. I assume it was just the easiest pathway for approval through the FDA. This notion of using our phones as medical devices is still REALLY new, but other medical apps haven’t found the need for such restrictions.
If this is your first smart phone then Xdrip+ might be a little over your head. But then again, maybe not. I don’t know how well you take to new technology. There are lots of step by step instructions which make it so anyone CAN do it… but it’s going to be painfully slow going if you have to have to constantly look up new vocabulary words. And after all that work, you may not even appreciate the extra perks of Xdrip, having never even experienced the bare-bones basic Dexcom offerings first.
Do you have someone more familiar with Android who can help you get up and running faster? Even going the build-your-own Dexcom G6 app is slightly advanced technique. You can’t just go to the Google Play store where it automatically sets up whatever apps you want for you. I promise, the build-your-own app thing isn’t nearly as scary as it sounds, though. You just have to answer a questionaire about your phone and location, and then download the file it generates for you. The most difficult parts are figuring out what geographic region Dexcom has assigned you (easy if you can follow the web link on a desktop computer), and then setting the permission on your phone that lets you manually install apps from “unknown sources”. (Any app that wasn’t downloaded from the Play Store came from an “unknown source”.). This will all go a lot easier if you’ve got someone to help, though. Even if not, Google is your friend! You can look up any instruction you don’t understand. Or ask for help here. 
People tend to either be team Android or team Apple when it comes to personal devices, with very little crossover. Personally, I’m staunchly in the Team Android camp! Android devices tend to be less expensive, don’t require specialized charging cables and accessories, and you also have more control over them. You can literally make them do whatever you want, whereas Apple provides a very narrow operating environment. Apple only lets you use your phone the way they want you to use it, which is good enough for the vast majority of people. As much as I love Android, I’m going to put it out there that if Dexcom is your major motivation for wanting a smart phone and you want it all easier on yourself, you may want to consider an Apple device. (I’m not pushing it, by any means, just saying to consider them.). That narrow operating environment that Apple allows makes things very simple from the user perspective. You have a smaller selection of Apps available to you, but everything there is pretty much guaranteed to run with very little effort on your part. If you’re not dead set on the latest phones, you can also find gently used ones for incredibly cheap, because tons of people upgrade to the newest when their old phone is still perfectly good.
In the very near future, though, I think this question of how easy Android is vs Apple will disappear. I’m nearly certain the Dexcom G7 app won’t be limited to a small selection of Android phones. There have been other apps pushed through the FDA since the G6 without such restrictions, so there’s no reason to carry the limited device position forward.
One reason I was going to try a smartphone is that my 3G flip phone will go kaput in February, and I needed an updated phone with 4G or 5G is rolling out now. I was looking at this website gazelle.com of used phones, but cyber Monday cleaned out most of their stock. Dexcom was also a motivator, but until I try it out for about a month, I don’t even know if Dexcom will work well for me.
About 3 months ago I was in the cellular store, and just walking around I was looking at prices, and I said some of these new phones cost about the same price as ones I was looking at on gazelle such as a Samsung s9 and s10 rated good to excellent which I new was on the approved list. Then about 7 weeks ago my brother (3 years older) goes and leaves one cellular chain and goes back to one he was with before and decided to upgrade and he and his wife got the Motorola one ace 5G, and said a few days ago he was satisfied with that phone. I asked him how the battery life was for him, and he said with light usage two days in and still had around 40%. Well, when I found out ATT would let me put some smartphone which includes the phone he bought on my type of prepaid plan, I thought I could afford that, and if I had some trouble, he would try to help when he had time. First he would criticize, and then try to help. He isn’t a tech nerd by any means, but he has had a smartphone since around 2009. He also built my last three desktop computers.
I have had people tell me get brand new so the phone will not be sort of considered outdated in a couple years compared to if I bought one that came out in 2018 or 2019 which in their words may not be able to get updates on those in a couple years.
I have also thought about other pumps other than Medtronic’s whose CGM I did not do well with. I trialed the tslim, but didn’t care for it. Other pumps in development seem to be pairing with Dexcom, and I have thought I should see if Dexcom will work for me if I want to consider other possible pumps. Another factor to cross my mind is that if Dexcom comes out with the g7 which I expect to happen, I wondered if some of the older smartphones on the “approved” list would get knocked off and not work with the g7 version.
Try faking the phone type
Robin, I took a look at some of the stuff about xdrip+ and I think I could follow step by step directions , but I can’t figure out if you get xdrip+ from the Playstore or a website that mentions the latest versions. It sounds as if there may be a little more in it than I may be interested in, but difficult to tell if you can skip what you may not be interested in knowing.
I am using an Amazon tablet at the moment writing this, but I was able to download the g6 app from the playstore and installed it on the tablet here, and got to the point where it said unsupported phone, so I tried the BYOD , and installed it to the point of asking for user name or create account.
I was curious if I might be able to try and install xdrip on my tablet here out of curiosity, and if I could it would help when going through a second time. I don’t have a phone yet, but if I wanted to get that Motorola phone, I’d place the order this Evening with ATT so it would arrive when someone is home.
Anyway, any help to get started to see if I can get xdrip on the tablet would be appreciated. I don’t really want to download from a non legit site.
Thanks, Chris
You CANNOT get Xdrip+ on the play store because it violates Google’s terms of service. I suspect because they’ve plagiarized elements of the original software the various sensor manufacturers have put out, but I don’t know that for sure. (As in, taking bits of Dexcom’s original G6 app, especially the communication protocols, and copy/pasting it right into the Xdrip+ app, then doing the same with all the other sensors too.)
Instead, you have to go to a website called GitHub, which is a very popular website for hosting safe software, download it, then install it yourself through a process called “sideloading” an app. The exact process depends on your tablet and what version of Android it’s running, but it’s not difficult.
If you’re lucky, this is the easiest way:
Go to this website: Releases · NightscoutFoundation/xDrip · GitHub
There is a new version of Xdrip released very often with minor improvements, called a “nightly build”. You want to download the most recent one, which will be at the very top of the page. As I’m typing this, that would be “Nightly Build 14 Jan 2022”. Click on the word “assets” right underneath that. That will expand, and show you that they’ve published 3 different files today. You only need to download the one that ends in .apk. Click on “xDrip-plus-20220114-73ada42.apk”, and it should automatically start downloading. If it doesn’t, you may need to do a long press and wait for a pop-up, then click the option in the pop-up to download the file. If at any point your are asked if you want to download or proceed, you do.
If it is downloading, there should be a new notification for it up in the notification panel at the top of your screen, showing the download progress. It may take a little while, depending on how fast your internet is. After the download is finished, hopefully you can click on the “download finished” notification (the wording may be different, like the filename followed by the word finished). It should ask you if you want to install the file, to which you confirm. It will then probably give you some sort of warning about the danger of installing from unknown sources and ask if you want to proceed anyway, which you do.
If you’re lucky, that will have adjusted the necessary settings for you and installed Xdrip+. You should see it at the bottom of the panel where you find all your apps.
If you’re not so lucky, depending on your device, you may have to enable the " install from unknown sources" setting yourself, and then go find the file you downloaded. In the most recent versions of Android you actually have to give that permission specifically to your web browser, so the location of that setting has moved. If my previous download solution doesn’t work for you, tell me what tablet you’re using and what version of Android it’s running, and I can help you further.