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Libre 3 app (UK version) racks up over 1K downloads

D

DavidDK

Well-Known Member
Messages
94
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
According to Google's Play store the UK version of the Freestyle Libre 3 app has been downloaded over 1,000 times.

Even assuming some brand new users of the Libre 1 and Libre 2 may have downloaded the Libre 3 app by mistake, that number of downloads suggests some of us must be using the Libre 3 in England (and Wales?) now.

Is anyone?
 
I would love to have one. I am still pricking my fingers and will have to pay out of pocket for one. One problem is I am in the US and it won't be out here probably for at least another year.
 


Hi,

As far as I know. Germany has them. (Like when the L2 came out, they seemed to get it first?)
The first I herd the L2 was in the country, was when I was self funding & given the choice at the pharmacy I sourced them from?
Regarding the app download conundrum.? I used a third party app & Bluetooth bridge with the L1. Ditched the bridge, but seemed to remember being able to scan the L2 with the L1 app?
It was only when I got another phone I updated the Abbott app?
I Get the L2 on script now.
so it could be speculated that the L3 app is being downloaded either by mistake in the UK or, “in anticipation?”

I sense a long wait, (for self funders.) like it was for the L2..
 
I have read of some people in the UK having Libre 3 but they seem to be a few diabetes clinics being provided some trial samples.
 
Braye said:
I would love to have one. I am still pricking my fingers and will have to pay out of pocket for one. One problem is I am in the US and it won't be out here probably for at least another year.
Click to expand...

I feel your pain Braye.

Aren't both the Freestyle Libre 1 and Freestyle Libre 2 already available for use by diabetics in the US? I thought the US food and drug administration had approved both of those medical devices for use in the US some time ago.

It is still early days but at the moment it is looking like very view diabetics will be given the choice to have access to the Freestyle Libre 3 in England (and Wales?).
 
Has anyone tried the new app with a Libre 2? The fact that we now know that the L2 sends BGs every minute to the version 2 app, JUST for alarms, I wonder if the L3 and app are really just re-branded as the CGM function could be, and is by some apps, achieved on the L2 quite happily.
 

I've not tried to do so. A number of diabetics who have reviewed the Libre 3 on YouTube have indicated adamantly in their reviews that the Libre 3 app software won't work with Libre 1 or Libre 2 sensors.
 
DavidDK said:
I've not tried to do so. A number of diabetics who have reviewed the Libre 3 on YouTube have indicated adamantly in their reviews that the Libre 3 app software won't work with Libre 1 or Libre 2 sensors.
Click to expand...

I suspect a degree of commercial influence if this is the case, and I suspect you are right. I run Juggluco alongside L2 and get the desired affect albeit from two apps rather than one.

Ah well......
 
barrym said:
I suspect a degree of commercial influence if this is the case, and I suspect you are right. I run Juggluco alongside L2 and get the desired affect albeit from two apps rather than one.

Ah well......
Click to expand...

I've not heard of that third party app before. I assume it must be new.

I don't begrudge Abbott recouping the time and money it will have spent researching and developing its products.

I've avoided using third party apps/devices. I know Abbott consider such apps/devices may infringe Abbott's intellectual property rights in their glucose monitoring products, and Abbott have been very adept at stopping such third party apps/devices being sold or downloaded through "official" channels.

Unlike Dexcom (who don't appear to have a problem with third party software/devices "augmenting" their glucose monitoring products), Abbott's products are "closed" systems, and so far they don't welcome the use of such third party apps/devices being used with their products.

I don't particularly want to attach something to my sensor nor download some additional third party software to turn it into a real time cgm. Quite apart from the above, it is a faff, the Libre 1 and Libre 2 sensors are large and conspicuous enough already without having to place something else on or near it.

Also, from what I've read about these third party apps/devices if you get your sensors on the NHS you still have to scan the sensor a minimum 8(?) times a day to comply with the contract they make you agree to and/or sign so that you are sending data from the sensor to Abbott's servers so your diabetes clinicians can monitor your progress. These third party devices/apps won't send the data to Abbott's servers for you. Indeed, many of those third party apps/devices seem to work in such a way that they make it more diffucult to scan and send one's data from a Libre 1 or Libre 2 sensor in the usual way to Abbott's servers so it is viewable in Libreview.

The Libre 3 means there is now no need to use third party devices/apps to have a real time cgm. I just hope/wish the NHS will stop bring so ruddy "penny wise and pound foolish" and cack-handed in the way it is liberalising the rollout of real time cgms and allow more diabetics to have a Libre 3 or another real time cgm.
 
Am hopefully starting a trial for 3 on Tuesday. I will not see any info from it as I am wearing it. They are activated within hospital and I continue wearing a 2 for readings and have to commit to a certain amount of blood tests a day. After the trial I could have been given a 3 to wear for two weeks, but unfortunately I use an I phone and at the moment there is only an Android compatibility. Apple are not signed up for it at the moment. From my understanding we cannot get it in this country yet. And when we have access you will need an Android phone as there is no reader.
Should be interesting though.
 

Congratulations becca59!

You are the first person I know based in England or Wales (I assume) who has been offered the "choice" (albeit a trial at this stage) of a real time Libre 3 cgm following the update of the NICE guidelines on 1 April 2022.

I'm hoping at some stage you might be kind enough to let us know what your experience of the Libre 3 is like.

Yes, I knew iPhone users in England (Wales) cannot use the Libre 3 at present. Which I find strange as iPhone-using diabetics in Germany have been using the Libre 3 for well over two years, and it was German Android-using diabetics who couldn't use the Libre 3.

There are plenty of Android-using diabetics in England (and Wales).

If it's not too personal a question (if it is please don't answer it), why are your clinicians insisting on you doing blood tests? Or do you simply mean you will have to do a set number of capillary fingerstick tests each day/week?

I can understand why the hospital will want to "initiate" the Libre 3 sensor "in hospital" for the first time as it is a trial and your first time using it. I do hope though if you use it on an ongoing basis that won't continue to be the case as it sounds restrictive.

I'm hoping the NHS won't be placing additional layers of unnecessary "terms and conditions" - terms and conditions that aren't present in the new NICE guidelines - that patients will be required to jump through in order to access the Libre 3.
 

I agreed with all that you have said until I tripped over Juggluco. It is on the Google Play Store, so a small degree of peace of mind. It runs alongside LibreLink; I sttill use LL to record carbs, insulin, etc and it gets automatically uploaded to LV just as normal. Obviously you still have to scan as that is the only way LL gets the data. Meanwhile the Juggluco app sucks up all the alarm messages (one a minute) screams at you if you go high/low, displays the reading and does a few other things including a very nice if untidy graph as there is no 'smoothing'. I find this extremely useful. In the past I was prone to over reacting to readings and eating or injecting when not really required, getting into the yo-yo cycle. Now I can see exactly minute by minute the quite wild fluctuations that seem to occur even when 'running normally' and get a much better feel for things.

Oh, you can also see that when you scan the other app is showing exactly the same (well possibly 0.1 out depending if you scan/look over a minute boundary).

I'm impressed. Not just with this particular app but the functionality. I never really thought there would be any advantage unless 'closed looping', but it is another example of the benefit of good data.

For clarity, this is Libre 2 and NO bulky add-ons.

I do look forward to the smaller L3 and probably will be happy with the one official app.

FWIW I have emailed Abbott and asked why they don't just display the alarm data in the L2 app. Had a standard 'thank you' and nothing else. Just 10 minute amendment I reckon, just stick it up on the notification line for 10 seconds or something. Ah well:-(
 

Thanks barrym

Yes I saw the app you mentioned was in the play store. It looks and sounds very interesting. If they haven't authorised its use, I suspect Abbott will take steps to stop it being readily available officially if they aren't doing so already.

I will just wait and see whether the NHS stop being so penny pinching and silly with what is our taxpayer money and do the right thing and give more of us access to a real time cgm proper so we no longer have to rely on these third party apps/devices that the makers of some of the official glucose monitor sensors don't authorise or recommend officially.

After all, logically anyone who is making better treatment decisions by using a third party app/devices to turn a flash sensor into a real time cgm ought to be given a real time cgm proper.
 
@DavidDK the trial is run for Abbott by the clinic. I am not doing the trial for my own personal benefit. Though I would have had access to use one for two weeks at the end of the trial if I had bought an Android last week rather than an I phone. They attach 2 Libre 3 which I will not be able to monitor and a Libre 2 which I will. Part of the terms and conditions are that you agree to test blood at least 4 times a day. A bit of a palaver but without people being prepared to put themselves out we will not move on to have the 3 on the NHS. I suspect Abbott have to have mountains of actual proof this thing does what they say it does for the NHS to adopt it.
If we paid medical insurance like other countries, we would indeed already have access.
 
They are available for those on insulin or are having trouble controlling their diabetes but your doctor really has to advocate and have proof which my numbers are low so my doctor doesn't believe I warrant one and actually told me to stop testing except maybe once or twice a week. LOL instead I test more!
 
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Good so far, it would be cool if they created an app widget so we could see our glucose levels on the Android home screen without opening the app.
 
Emily_Morgan said:
Good so far, it would be cool if they created an app widget so we could see our glucose levels on the Android home screen without opening the app.
Click to expand...

Hello Emily

Please may I ask (and assuming once again that you are based in England or Wales), have you been given the Libre 3 as part of a clinical trial of the product?

How easy or difficult was it for you to persuade your attending diabetic clinicians to have the Libre 3?
 
Emily_Morgan said:
Good so far, it would be cool if they created an app widget so we could see our glucose levels on the Android home screen without opening the app.
Click to expand...

Juggluco as described above shows the current value in the status bar and on the lock screen.
 
Am up and running on the Libre 3 trial. Two 3s and a 1 in place (normally use a 2 but adjusting to life without alarms again. Plus 1 definitely not as accurate as a 2) No idea what the 3s are doing as started in hospital and have no access to readings. Having to do at least 4 blood tests a day as part of trial. My understanding is that the 3 is not yet being given on the NHS. But wearing them is amazing. So tiny and unobtrusive. Not aware they are there. Much less likely to get snagged on a door. The reading from it after the 1 hour start up just appears on the phone screen when you lift it up. Amazing, bring it on. Even the wait will be worth it in the end.
 
On L2 atm in the UK
Any news on when it will be replaced with L3?
Is it compaible with xdrip anyone know?
 
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