At long last, Dexcom's Share app, which allows users to view and share data from their G5 continuous glucose monitors, will be available for Android users. The Android app just now received FDA clearance, and the company will roll out the app this month. The launch is a long time coming: iOS users have had access to the app since 2015.
“Providing Android users with access to the Dexcom G5 Mobile CGM System has been a priority for Dexcom,” Dexcom President and CEO Kevin Sayer said in a statement. “The new Android app has been thoughtfully designed with customer needs and feedback in mind. It focuses on delivering technology that empowers users by putting critical glucose information on their phones and is compatible with the most popular Android devices currently in the market.”
Regulated Android apps can be slower to market because, unlike iOS apps, they have to work on a wide range of devices from different manufacturers. Additionally, Dexcom has said in the past that the Bluetooth LE technology Dexcom Share uses wasn't available for Android at the time the app was originally developed.
Dexcom hasn't been completely unavailable to Android users, however. The Dexcom Follow app, through which friends, family, and caretakers can access a patient's CGM data remotely, has been available on Android since June 2015. Additionally, patient hackers have been getting Dexcom data on to their Android Wear watches for some time.
At launch, the new app will be available on several phones from Samsung, Motorola and LG, as well as Android Wear watches.
iOS users, meanwhile, got their own bit of news at Apple's WWDC developer conference Monday, when Apple VP of Technology Kevin Lynch shared that the Apple Watch is adding native Bluetooth to be able to communicate with third party devices, and Dexcom will be among the first developers to take advantage of the upgrade. Dexcom has an Apple Watch app at the moment, but it currently requires the phone to be in range. Now the Watch and the CGM will be able to communicate directly.
