iPhone or Libre reader?

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eggyg

eggyg

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 3c
I updated my positively ancient iPhone last week. I’m now the proud owner of a iPhone SE. I checked and it’s compatible with the Freestyle Libre. I’ve only ever used a reader. My sensor finishes today and I’m a bit scared of using my phone to start it as I have heard all sorts of problems occurring with phones in general but especially iPhones. I have had absolutely no problem at all with the reader, or sensors for that matter, since I was prescribed the Libre 2 last October. I want the info that I can get on the phone, and the handiness of it, but I can’t cope with problems. I’m a technophobe and get all flustered if things don’t work. I nearly had a breakdown last week just setting up my new phone!

Can someone reassure me please that it’ll all be tickety boo and it’s the best thing since sliced bread, or should I continue to be a dinosaur and carry on using the reader? I’ve got until mid afternoon before I need to decide. Thanks in advance. 🙂
 
If you scan the sensor with the reader first then your phone you can then get alarms on the reader and still scan with your phone (no alarms on the phone if you use reader first) then if one go wrong you still have the other as a back up
 
You can have both, provided you start your new sensor with the reader. If you start the new sensor with your iPhone, then the reader simply has no part to play; it will be denied access bt the new sensor.

If you start with the reader, the alarms only come from the reader; the sensor can't provide alarms to reader and phone. So you need both reader and phone close by for alarms and full phone "handiness".

I find the reader simplicity useful, eg when gardening. Reader scans are simple and fast; phone scans take longer, ignoring the time needed to wake your phone up - my phone needs to be in just the right place for phone NFC (near field communication) to work. The reader scans need the reader screen towards the sensor and is very forgiving; phone scans need the back of the phone facing the sensor on my phone and my phone is very picky about the position as well as the NFC being slow to complete. You should find out where your NFC is on your phone. So I use both by starting with the reader.

Once the reader is started I scan with my phone and get that started; the phone needs to scan at least once every 8 hrs to maintain a full 24 hr coverage. The phone will automatically send all data back to LibreView by WiFi or mobile data; you don't need to connect your reader to a PC with a cable.

I put all data into the phone only, eg insulin and carbs taken, so it's a rare day when the phone hasn't scanned every 8 hrs. The phone 'reports' are much more sophisticated and clearer than the basic reports produced by the reader.

My suggestion: this first time start with the reader and get used to scanning with the phone. This keeps you using both for the next fortnight (reader for alarms and phone for everything else) then try phone only for the following sensor after you've got used to the relative sophistication of the phone. Don't then discard your reader, they are now hard to come by and you might want it in the future; I have to go into hospital for surgery and intend to take my reader into the theatre for the anaesthetist to monitor.

Hope this helps.
 
I’d download the Shuggah app and start it there then you don’t need to scan. Use the libre app too though and just set it to remind you to scan every 8 hours as Shuggah doesn’t have the reporting that libre does
 
Try all 3: reader, iPhone and Shuggah app. Sounds close to perfection as you make the transition, experiment with the new tech and make up your mind for the long term.
 
Only ever use phone have done for long time now, just find it so convenient as phone is always close by & something rarely forget when going out, you get to know how to position phone over sensor to connect with nfc facility so that you don't get error messages.

Don't have iPhone but given how popular they are now & amount of people using libre device I'm sure there's more people having positive experiences scanning sensors than negative, just own thoughts on matter anyway.
 
I was 6 years using Libre 1, 2 & 3 and 4 years of using my Iphone without any problems, for the Libre 2 reader it never even made it out of the box.
 
Thanks all. As I only had a few hours left on this sensor I scanned with my phone to get a feel of it. The only thing I’d say is it’s a lot more awkward as it’s loads bigger and I don’t have big hands. But I managed to find “ the sweet spot” pretty much straight away. I did it in Tesco and in the car before I drove home, so I obviously have NFC ( I thought that was a north east football team) !
@Lucyr I’ll look at that sugar app thingy, never heard of it before.
Fingers crossed for later, I’ll report back tomorrow.
 
Apple will warn you about unregistered apps, so you may find it tricky to download the App. It will also tell you that Apple has not been given any info about the data collection that the Shuggah App has. The Apps are free, because these folk make their money by selling your info. I wouldn't install it, because I have no need of such data - I don't need to know what my BG is doing every minute of every day, that's too extreme, unrelated to physiological need. That's why I don't mind the Dexcom G6 checking every 5 minutes, because that is far less than you'd expect the CGM to catch up with the BG which takes 15 minutes. Though that is why when hypo you should use BG to check corrections.
 
mikeyB said:
Apple will warn you about unregistered apps, so you may find it tricky to download the App. It will also tell you that Apple has not been given any info about the data collection that the Shuggah App has. The Apps are free, because these folk make their money by selling your info. I wouldn't install it, because I have no need of such data - I don't need to know what my BG is doing every minute of every day, that's too extreme, unrelated to physiological need. That's why I don't mind the Dexcom G6 checking every 5 minutes, because that is far less than you'd expect the CGM to catch up with the BG which takes 15 minutes. Though that is why when hypo you should use BG to check corrections.
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I would completely agree with MikeyB with this statement, if an App cant get approved by apple then there is good chance its not meeting their standards, we will upset some people here by saying that but who knows what data these 3rd party apps are collecting from your phone, stick with the Libre app its easy to use once you find that spot at the top of the phone with the NFC chip
 
I’m also a dinosaur LOL. I switched from reader to phone (not the landline :confused: ) about a month ago as part of my pump prep. It’s fine. For the time being, I’ve only got the alarm for lows switched on. I’ve got new hearing aids too so the alarms are deafening!o_O
 
I do think that is a little naive to believe, you paint a picture of a guy sitting on his laptop punching code only to deal with his diabetes, if you have to bypass the Apple app requirement and possibly jailbreak your phone to get the app to operate then the person left with the compromised phone is open to all kinds of malicious software. Don't be fooled in thinking your data is not valuable, there is a reason why the above mentioned apps are not available for iphones, they have little or no testing data and are unable to meet apples security and use requirements
Android is a completely different matter because the security on android phones and apps are full of holes and anyone with basic some knowledge can take what ever data they like without you even knowing they were there.
after a little look on line about those apps for android it seems that the software is hosted on GITHUB and its open source so anyone can play with the code and hide malicious content within the code.
I'm not pro apple in any way but their system works so that's why i use their phones
 
Bloden said:
I’m also a dinosaur LOL. I switched from reader to phone (not the landline :confused: ) about a month ago as part of my pump prep. It’s fine. For the time being, I’ve only got the alarm for lows switched on. I’ve got new hearing aids too so the alarms are deafening!o_O
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Not landline, that made me laugh Bloden lol
 
You don’t need to bypass anything to download the Shuggah app just download it from the App Store. This is the one you want
 

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eggyg said:
I updated my positively ancient iPhone last week. I’m now the proud owner of a iPhone SE.
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Just for my info, is this a 2020 or 2022?

And, is anyone else using a 2022 successfully? I'm sure there are 000's but people only post problems don't they?
 
barrym said:
Just for my info, is this a 2020 or 2022?

And, is anyone else using a 2022 successfully? I'm sure there are 000's but people only post problems don't they?
Click to expand...
It’s a 2020. All going ok so far, but I’m only 12 hours in!
 
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