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

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

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.

Heads up…Long review, I’m not a fan and can’t recommend it. I purchased 4 of these thinking I would get a good idea of what my diet and exercise was doing to my blood sugar for 2 solid months. First one worked okay. I did test it against a finger-stick monitor (Registered Dietitian here,) and found that it reads low. The monitor I used is made by Freestyle, same company (Abbott) that makes Lingo. My finger-sticks were about 5-15mg/dl higher than the readings coming from the biosensor. I tested it several times during the two weeks, most were 15mg/dl higher. I knew at that point that it wasn’t super accurate, but I could still see that even a tiny bit of sugary creamer in my coffee sent my blood sugar up and then crashing after a few hours if I didn’t eat anything else with it. That info helped me to give up the coffee creamer since I always tend to crash after sugar. I tested different sweet stuff, mixed with and without fats and protein. I was excited to continue with the next sensor and was planning to just stick consistently with my healthy low carb diet and not test sweets since I know I crash every time. I wore the first one without issue, knowing that it wasn’t super accurate I just looked for trends. It was fairly easy to take off after two weeks of wear, but I was surprised how sticky it still was. Hardly felt it on me or when I applied it or removed it. I could not sleep on my left arm or I would get odd swings in readings at night. After removal I waited two days and installed the 2nd. The second gave me a kinda high reading for me after an hour even though I hadn’t eaten anything yet, I think it was around 89mg/dl. Then I got the dreaded error: “Please wait 8 hours to see your reading or contact support.” No readings or history were showing. EIGHT hours? That seemed crazy. I did wait about 3, but nothing changed, so I emailed Abbott. I did get a response fairly quickly, maybe 12-18 hours. I’m sure a call would be quicker. I had to answer a billion questions and finally got an email back that a replacement was on its way. So I was told I could remove the sensor that I had on and trash it. Sensor 2 removal was tough. Since it was freshly placed, it was super sticky. After I finally got it off I was bleeding quite a bit, took a while to stop and yeah, that was fun. That one left a scary purple bruise. Since I still had 2 more sensors on hand I decided to place another on my right arm today (3 days later,) since my left arm is still bruised. I was a bit scared after the drama removal of the last one. Again, no pain applying. Whew. I was sure this would work. After one hour, (it takes an hour to calibrate,) this time it said my blood sugar was below 55. (Which BTW, I got that a lot when I wore the first sensor. When it’s below 55mg/dl, you don’t get a number, just <55.) then about another hour later I got the same error message again asking me to leave it on for 8 hours or contact customer service. Ugh. I did email Abbott a few hours ago and requested a refund for 3 sensors this time, no answer yet. I wore this one about 4 hours. Nothing. I just removed this second “error” biosensor and it was tough to remove like the last. New and very sticky, which is excellent if it’s going to stay on for 2 weeks, not 2 hours. Thankfully, I didn’t bleed much and no bruise so far. The app is pretty limited. Really needs improving. I did read that the Lingo goal is very confusing for a lot of people and I can see why it would be. It’s not intuitive. I got the hang of the app and was happy that it connects to Apple health and automatically adds my exercise. Easy enough to add food, but doesn’t connect to the Cronometer food tracking app that I use and love. I wish that the readings below 55 would be displayed since I tend to be hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) and it would be helpful to see what the lows were. I will say that I can typically feel my lows and my <55 readings did not feel like I was having a low. Wish I had confirmed a few of those with a finger stick. Great idea for self-help people like me. Needs lots of improvement. If you’re prediabetic or know an endocrinologist, or even talk to your family doctor about why you want to try one, especially if you’re worried about your health or have a family history of diabetes. I would ask for a prescription version of a CGM. Your doctor might give you one to try, but those need to be placed and removed by a health care professional. Your doctor will be more willing to give you a finger stick monitor if you’re willing to stick your finger first thing in the morning for a fasting reading, after meals and exercise. Monitor is cheap, test strips are pricy OTC. You can also get a prescription for test strips if your doctor sees a need. Seems scary, but it’s not too bad and it’s definitely more accurate if you're really worried about your health.

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.

I am a Libre Freestyle 3 Plus user, and have been happy with the quality of that sensor, the reliability (compared to finger-pricks) and the customer support for the infrequent issues that did arise. I purchased the Lingo so that I could wear the device simultaneously with my spouse, in order to create a companionable understanding of our lifestyle's impact on our health and wellness. Pro: I liked the cost and availability of the sensor without a prescription. The app was easy for us to install and navigate. Using a buddy-system in this way made the experience much more interesting for him. He now has a few meaningful questions for his practitioner and their discussion might be well-guided by what he discovered. He had a few unexpected, paradoxical results (that were brought to light by the sensor and validated by finger-prick) that will be very interesting to understand. This would never be known without the sensor data. He is not pre-/diabetic. Cons: I like the Freestyle Libre's dataset much more. It's available online and can be downloaded for those meaningful discussions with your primary care practitioners. The Lingo's data is less revealing for me. It does, however, keep you on track and indicates when interventions are needed. The variability of the sensor was a problem. My husbands sensor was a good 20 points off, but not consistently so. So much so, that it throws shade on the rest of the data. We used a finger-prick to validate, knowing that measuring blood glucose in the blood will be different than when measuring blood glucose in the interstitial fluid from the sensor. His variation was different than mine, and grew more significant on the last two days of the sensor. This review received 4 stars because we would not have any of the information to evaluate if not for the ability to access a sensor without prescription and at such accessible costs. I know we can ask for prescriptions for better sensors if we need to. This preliminary buddy-system approach was revealing and well worth the 2-week journey for us both, which caused positive and lasting lifestyle changes. I do recommend that folks have the ability to validate the sensor's readings from time to time.