Lingo Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) & App. Made by Abbott. Knows the effects of what you eat. iPhone 11 or later required. US only

This has been so enlightening! I’m a thin, very active, and very healthy eating 60 year old with an A1c just barely in the pre diabetic range (5.7) per my last physical and lab results. I was shocked. So I bought this to see if I could find out when my sugars were high and after what foods. Well I was shocked again to find out how high my sugars went and how frequently I get big swings. I’m on my 4th day and have finally figured out through trial and error my diet and activity level and timing to give me a good Lingo score. I found that I need to eat less carbs (even though all were whole grain) and less fruit (I love fruit!) and only after some protein but mostly that I need to eat smaller meals and to stay active for about an hour after each meal to keep my sugar levels stable and from peaking so high. Yes it’s a little bit of a hassle but something I can do and so much better than medication or worse - having diabetic complications down the road. I would never have known without being able to have a constant monitoring system! It’s very easy to place the monitor and painless. And the app is easy to use. This will change my behavior and prevent so much pain and problems in my future. I cannot recommend this high enough if you’re pre diabetic or if you just want to have your eyes opened regarding what your sugars are on a real time basis. The best fifty bucks I’ve ever spent! It’s now 7 days later. The monitor stopped working on day 6. I called Amazon and they gave me a full refund without any problems. However, I still think the information was life changing for me. I would have liked more time to try different foods to see my body’s response, so I will try another one. I’m going to keep my rating at 5 stars because of how incredibly enlightening it was even though it only lasted the 6 days.

If this sensor is useful or not, I will never know... because I could not get it to work. To apply the sensor to the arm is easy and you will not feel a thing. To install the app is a total different issue. I have a Samsung Phone and I use this phone exactly for the reason intended by Alexander Graham Bell and nothing else... like most seniors my age. I do not care one bit for all this nonsense and pretend functionality on a modern phone. Actually most phones are virtually unusable because the keyboard is too small for old fingers. But I did managed to "register" for a Google account. They of course ask me all sorts of questions which are none of their damn business... but I suffer with dignity so I go to the Google Play Store and search for "Lingo" and installed the app. The app started with asking me all sorts of questions... again, none of their business. I paid for the sensor so I should be able to use it, but no... they are more interested in my info. Then 10 or 20 pages later (i did not count) finally the page which read: Ready To Scan... I did hold the back of my phone directly onto the sensor which I had already put onto my arm. and .... nothing... then the message... Pairing Error... I tried numerous times Then I called the support line and as expected a gentleman with a heavy indian accent ( you recognize the accent when they call you and try to con you out of your money, never pick up the phone when you do not recognize the number). Obviously the guy talks too fast, uses unnecessary words and you cannot understand a thing. This went on for good 1 hour and nothing. among other things, he asked me to delete the app, reinstall this and then search for a red dot... ??? what red dot??? I still do not know what he meant. Anyway I told him, that I cut my losses and tell everybody about my ordeal. Then he suddenly offered me to replace the sensor. Very well I am down $50 already, might as well... arrives in 2-3 days, meaning 4-5 days because of the weekend. Why is there no "app" for this sensor on a PC. After all A PC has a screen I can actually see and a keyboard which does not require baby fingers. And for Pete's sake, do not ask me all these dumb questions, which are none of your business. If the replacements ensor works, I will try it... but then never again. Simply measure your morning fasting BG like before and that is that. Minute to minute updates are superfluous and expensive technology and a pain in the rear. 12/21/25 1:14pm Important update. I did not want to wait for the replacement and ordered another one yesterday from Amazon same day delivery. This one worked, but did not give me any reading for 1 hour and afterwards it was 20 points too low compare to the finger stick (73, 92). however this morning it was a lot better, In fact just now it reads 92 and the contour next fingerstick reads 95. I am more than happy with that. To be sure I get some benefit from this device... after all I learned that overnight my BG dropped to 55 for a brief moment... I seriously doubt that. All you can see trends, and I am lucky with this one, it is even accurate.... but I am an EE and I did work with large continuous datasets which were contaminated with large random errors and judging by the graph, it looks very much like a data set processed using a Markov Process. This is a mathematical process to get the best up to date measurement even when the whole data set is contaminated with random errors. But there is no free lunch in mathematics, nothing beats accurate measurements, no amount of math and statistics will make it better, even when it appears like that. In the moment I am happy... lets see, if the other reviews have a point. besides, why do you want to measure something you already know? Sugar and refined carbohydrates spike your blood glucose... its common knowledge... don't eat junk food and you do not need a CGM, Everybody who wears a CGM or reads this post, has already done the most important thing, which is educating oneself about nutrition... everything else is superfluous. Important update 05/Jan/2026 I am on my 2nd sensor. They last only 14 days for whatever reason, most importantly I guess, the glue will not stick much longer than that, probably the skin will secrete oils which dissolve the glue??? The good news was, that removing the old sensor was easy and it left no mark on my skin other than a tiny hole where the sensor was inserted. Unfortunately, the second sensor is also about 20 points too low, relative to the test strip. Of course one could argue that the test strips read 20 points too high, which I seriously doubt. Consecutive testing with test strips (Contour Next EZ) show readings within 5 counts of each other using brand new test strips. Overnight I get readings of 55 with the CGM, which is utter nonsense, because I am a recovering type 2 diabetes patient... even a reading of 75 overnight is hard to believe. The only useful thing I have discovered is that overnight my BG drops significantly. Morning glucose measurements are virtually useless, because of the classic BG spike after waking up. As soon as you out of bed, the BG is already on the rise and it can go up 30 maybe even 40 points within minutes and you have no way of knowing on which part of the curve you are measuring. So again, I have a warm feeling that maybe I have conquered my insulin resistance, just add 20 points to whatever the CGM tells you and when this is under 80 during the night, you maybe ok... still avoid carbs for the rest of your life

The lingo is great little piece of technology. It has a small profile and it works well. Here I address the major points: 1. Accuracy: I'm on my second lingo, and I compare its reading with TWO separate True Metrix glucose meters. Every time I have checked, the lingo reading is between the two reading from the True Metrix meters. So the lingo is never far off from what is the true value. The sensor does read low if you compress it, like when you sleep on it. But that is a minor issue. 2. Ease of application. The applicator is spring loaded and the unit goes on without a hitch. Don't be worried about what looks like a needle -- I feel nothing from the puncture when it inserts. I inspected the unit after removing it, and the probe looks like a flexible short piece of hair, so very thin and unobtrusive. 3. Sticking power: I bumped my first unit several times and it stayed on just fine. I prepared the area by shaving my hairy arm and cleaning it with isopropal alcohol. That seemed good enough. It finally came off prematurely after I got really sweaty and pulled of my shirt, which was sticking to my arm. I didn't feel it coming off an found that it had re-stuck to my skin a couple inches from where it had been. So I just washed my arm and applied a new lingo sensor. I purchased the little sticky pads that one can place over the sensor to protect it from accidental bumps, and that seems to work well, making it less likely to be pulled off. 4. The app: It works well and provides a running plot of the glucose data in 5 minute intervals, taking a running average over the data that is taken every minute. 5. Customer support: Support is great. They respond quickly and take care of the issue. My wife had a defective sensor and it was replaced right away. 6. Data: You can contact customer support to request your data, which they provide by email in CSV format. Two suggestions here: (1) It would be nice to be able to download the data electronically without the need to request it by email. (2) I would like to have the minute by minute data so that I can analyze the statistics. They tell me that they are working on electronic access but I have not heard back about getting the minute-by-minute data. Overall, this is a great little device that helps you see which foods and activities affect your blood glucose. And, it's nice having long term data to compare it with your A1c. In my case, it appears that the A1c results are much higher than reality.

Update after 6 weeks: Pros: 1 see live glucose levels 2 average daily glucose levels over several canned timeframes 3 small and discrete 4 easy to apply and painless The data is eye-opening. In 6 weeks I learned my hunger is driven by a glucose roller coaster. The spikes after eating result in insulin that brings glucose down to levels that trigger hunger, which causes me to eat when my stomach is still full. Then glucose spikes again, repeating this process all day. This explains why I would eat all day and feel hungry all day. My chart looked like a sine-wave. The data helped me to make a few small changes that have stabilized my glucose levels. They neither spike very high, or dip very low anymore. They hover close to my average. Starting with a Lingo count of 66, I ended the 6 weeks with counts between 0 and 12. My starting glucose was averaging 117 daily and ended at 95. On an empty stomach my glucose was around 100 and now it is around 90. Without starving , feeling hungry, or trying, I lost 5 pounds, my triglycerides dropped 30% and my cholesterol has also come down. Pretty incredible. I’m actually eating more of what I love but using the knowledge of how my body processes the food to my advantage. I don’t have any hunger at all! Cons: 1 limited choices when logging activity types and foods & no way to save a list of repetitive foods. 2 missing beverage or “other” consumption tracking category 3 no custom/user selectable timeframes for average glucose levels 4 no user interface via web to view data or provide it to medical practitioner 5 no data manipulation capabilities for generating custom reports 6 data is locked in lingo app and cannot be exported for any other purpose 7 app can be “jumpy” and take you where you didn’t want to go, freezes, closes, and disconnects from sensor often 8 sensor does not stay on without medical tape. My first sensor only stayed on for 3 days before coming off. I followed the directions precisely for application but it did not last. The second sensor began to come loose after about 5 days. I ended using medical tape and that resolved the issue. By itself, it does not seem possible for it to stay on for two weeks. I throughly cleaned and shaved the area on the back of my arm, but no luck. The app does not allow you to search your food entries to quickly view reactions to certain foods, confirming or comparing results. Unless you’re creating a separate journal with your reactions sorted by food type, you are jumping back and forth between days and trying to find the information. This is not easily manageable if you’re very serious about getting the full benefit of a CGM. Also, the app doesn’t allow you to enter anything eaten in categories other than Snack, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner. What about beverages? On my iPhone, when you are entering the name of the food, you cannot see the entry because it ends up behind the keyboard. If you try to scroll, it still does not show you the area you are typing in. This leads to lots of typos in the log. Another annoyance is that if you have a sudden inexplicable rise in glucose (I get them when asleep) the app only allows you to record exercise or food. You can remove the lingo count, but an indicator remains there requesting that you log an event. Those markers can clutter your chart with no explanation as to why they are there. Looking back you are left to wonder, did I forget to log food I ate, or is it an inexplicable spike? With some serious app updates and perhaps a website that has charts, reports and additional functionality, this could be a more powerful tool. As is, I only rate the app 2 stars out of 5 and the overall product a 4. I am off to try another brand of CGM to see if they have a better app interface to the date. Moreover, their over-the-counter model allows you to login online and see and manipulate the same data a doctor can see with their prescription version.

I'd give it 5 stars for the valuable info the CGMs provide in general and ease of use with the Lingo app and pairing. I learned a lot about my eating habits and how specific foods you eat, the time that you eat, and how you pair foods together impact glucose levels, which was very valuable information in staying healthy and for weight loss. But the Lingo device itself gets only 3 stars because it's extremely glitchy - I had to send one back because it stopped working properly midway (stopped registering any Lingo counts and customer service rep couldn't fix even with a device and app reset). I've also had odd readings - i.e, 1 keto cookie and 1 keto chocolate square sent my glucose sky high to 200 while a night of 2 glasses of red wine and a fairly heavy meal with potatoes, butter, cheese led to 0 Lingo counts and a small blip on the glucose chart. There's also a ramp up period when you put a new one on where it is inaccurate and all over the place, which completely messes up your weekly and total averages. The readings also rarely lined up with my blood glucose monitor - and while I know they won't be exactly the same because Lingo tracks serum glucose - the huge discrepancies I was seeing are not supposed to happen. I did Lingo for 2 months and have stopped for the summer - didn't want it to look like someone put an Air Tag on me when I wore short sleeved shirts! I would likely do it again here and there despite the problems because you can still get helpful information in the net - it's just for the high price tag (almost $100 a month) and the fact it's made by a pharma company, I'd expect better accuracy and reliability.