- Lingo Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM). 24/7 Glucose Tracking

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.

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

I’m an RN and bought this because I am super interested in all of the metabolic disease that is overrunning our country and feel that the current standard lab testing does a poor job in identifying problems early when there is still time to modify behaviors and outcomes. As I was looking at CGMs, I was surprised to see so many bad reviews. I’ve never written an Amazon review in my life but felt my experience was so different from the bad reviews that I needed to help people feel informed. The reviews noted issues with the CGM 1) Falling off easily 2) Not being accurate 3) Not working. I purchased the Abbott Lingo and was very, very impressed with the applicator, the biosensor, and the app. Everything worked flawlessly for the full two weeks when it appropriately ended its time. Regarding the issues others noted above: 1) I proactively purchased the Ceeport CGM sensor stickers and cut a small hole in the center since the dot on the biosensor can’t be covered. Abbott should probably consider including a sensor sticker with their package, but until then, it’s a no brainer to buy a $1 sticker to protect a $45 biosensor. The sticker lasted the full 2 weeks and I had zero issues with the sensor or sticker coming loose with daily exercise and showers. 2) Reviewers had complained that they did a finger prick glucose test and it was completely different than the reading on their CGM. I didn’t test my blood sugar at all during the two weeks, however I do know that the CGM is not testing *blood* sugar, it’s testing *interstitial fluid* (in the tissues) fluid, so it’s going to vary and it is a delayed result. My satisfaction with the rest of the product and seeing appropriate fluctuations based on meals/exercise/stress level give me confidence that this is likely pretty accurate. 3) When you initially open the app any time you want to see your reading, it says “sensor not in range” (or something) and the first time I saw this, I thought it wasn’t working. It does this every time you open the app, lasts 30 seconds or so, and then it pairs and all the info since the last time you logged in is uploaded on the app. It functioned perfectly for me for the two full weeks. Lastly I’d like to comment on the application of the biosensor. I was SO nervous about sticking myself with the needle. It literally did not hurt. The spring action made so much clicking sound when it fired as I was *very slowly, nervously* putting pressure on it, that it caught me off guard and all of a sudden it was applied and I didn’t even feel the poke! I was amazed. Nice work Abbott. The other positive component of wearing this CGM was the awareness of my body’s response to different foods. It gave me incredible insight (and therefore power) into how my diet was affecting me at the cellular level, and gave me great motivation to improve my dietary choices. I felt like the phone app was easy to navigate and very well done. Excellent product!

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 have used 3 Lingo glucose monitors. I am a former aerospace engineer and a data nurd, so i couldn't resist trying these devices under reasonably eell controlled conditions (i.e.controlled food intake and exercise quantities and timing). I had mixed results. Despite these mixed results, i found the device useful with the caveat that it was more qualitative than i would have preferred. Here are the good and bad experiences I've had. Pro 1) Despite all the bad reviews for customer service, I had one unit fail after 9 days. Within 4 days, I had a free replacement with very little hassle. 2) Applying the unit was simple and painless. 3) The application was simple to download and use on my Samsung S24. It is intuitive and well designed Cons 1) The "Lingo Count" does not appear to be consistent in its use of the data. It appears to discount some spikes based on user input of exercise as a trigger. The Lingo count is supposed to be a cumulative (integral is the mathematical term) indicator of glucose spikes. I found that the Lingo count omitted spikes which that were primarily caused by food intake presumably because the device attributed them to glucose release caused by exercise. I did identical exercise routines with and without the food intake and the normal glucose release was less than half of the spike response. IMHO the device should just give you an integral of the response over a normal 2) I had one unit fail after 8 days. The failure appears to have been related to pressure on the unit, which caused the unit to continuously register 200 mg/dl (the max the unit will display) when dinger prick measurements were in the 90s. 3) the units appeared to give variable results, despite nearly identical food intake and exercise patterns (matched quantities and timing of both). One unit gave significantly higher glucose values and Lingo counts under well controlled diet and exercise conditions than the other 2 units (yes it was the unit that failed but during the entire time it appeared to be functioning correctly).

Buyer beware. Design flaw: This product has a terrible design and only works half the time. The first one I purchased would not pair with my phone and issue I found out a lot of other people shared after looking at the reviews. I only found out this pairing issue after I had stuck myself with it so that was annoying. Replacement policy: Lingo has a way to replace defective products, however, you have to fill out a bunch of forms asking for the serial number, the date purchase, the invoice number, blah blah blah to get the refund and then you have to send them back the defective sensor, which I think is pre-sketch as it has been used and probably has your DNA on it. Adhesive not strong: Finally, the second one (the replacement) I put on worked for a solid two days, I found the info it collected interesting and insightful, however, this was short lived… I don’t believe I am a person that sweats more than the normal person I do exercise a few times a week and after the second day of doing this, the sticky edges of the sensor began to become unattached and unsticky leading to the device falling off…. Again pretty lame. Overall, I feel like this product should come with something that goes over the sensor to protect it from water or sweat, etc. Also, the instructions to apply it are to wash yourself and then use an alcohol wipe to clean the area. I think it’s odd that an alcohol wipe is not provided in the kit especially when the item is $50 each.. not a huge deal but just weird. Overall save your money or go with another brand especially if this is a “like to have” item other than a “need to have” item, it’s not worth the trouble.

I needed something to monitor my glucose that didn't require turning my fingers into a pincushion. It needed to be reasonably accurate. Continuous monitoring from the Lingo patch seemed to be worth a shot. Up front. I am not a physician. I am not being treated for diabetes. In general I am in pretty good health. I found it a little awkward to plant under my left arm. But is it doable. I shaved the area to give the device the best shot of getting a good grip. It stayed in place for the two weeks (14 days) the app will communicate to the device. I have an iPhone. Follow the direction to get the iPhone and app talking Bluetooth. After the app is installed, you will need to hold the iPhone approx 3 inches from the Lingo patch. It takes several long seconds (think 30+) for app to find the patch and start pulling in readings. Based on supplied documentation from Lingo/Abbott, the device is powered by Bluetooth. I guess you could call it another device from the IoT world. Powered by the power of the Bluetooth intranet. If your iPhone is more than 12 feet away (or has obstructions) the Lingo patch "will get angry" and stop pulling in readings. The remedy to restart data transfers was to move the iPhone 3 inches from the Lingo patch (and get it charged up again)..... One time I needed to disable/enable Bluetooth on the iPhone. On day 10 of the patch I had an annual doctor visit. This was my chance to get an accuracy measure of Lingo to a standard blood panel glucose measure. The patch reading before the blood draw was 84 mg/dL. The lab came back with 82 mg/dL. I was able to learn "bits and pieces" how my eating habits (type of carbs and time of day) were effecting my blood glucose levels. The last couple of years my A1C measures have "creep above" 6.0. "Fasting" measured glucose blood levels were still below 100, but just barely. In my case I discovered eating a load of complex carbs didn't spike my glucose (above 190), and it dropped below 140 within 2 hours. But the the glucose never seems to drop back to the 80's/90's. Healthy carbs, maybe not happy carbs. This issue was worst if eaten late in the evening or in the early AM hours. This eating habit was changed. I also found that "sneaking" a small snack was "radioactive" when measured in 5 minutes interval by the Lingo patch. Another area to modify eating habits. Except for a triple black coffee and cocoa powder (unsweetened) in the morning, I don't usually eat anything until noon. Lingo report me in the 90's-100's (yea waking up in the morning will bump your glucose). Not were I thought (or wanted) to be. As an experiment I ate 1/2 cup of fresh fruit and two heaping teaspoons of honey with the coffee brew. Within 60 minutes the patch would report a spike of over 200 mg/dL, (Lingo accurate measures stop at 200). Within two hours I would be under 100. For the next 3-4 hours the patch reported me between 68 - 89). This is how I got my 9:30 doctor visit/labs (10:35 draw) down to a measure of 82 mg/dL. Unhappiness. The distance limitation and "restart" of the patch is best understood as, "The patch and your phone have become inseparable friends". Get use to it. The Lingo app is a somewhat expansive. All I really need was the .csv download. I am handy with Excel. Again, I got all the analysis I needed from Excel and the Lingo .csv file. I couldn't find a way to enter notes in the app and have them download with the Lingo .csv file. But this may have been me not wanting to be a "Lingo App Master". It would be nice if the Lingo app would alarm/announce it has lost contact with the patch. Kind of a basic "IT 101 App" thing. Again, maybe I didn't dig deep enough into the app. For my purposes the device is a 5 star.

No idea why it does not mention a warning while buy this product that it’s not supported in Singapore. Very frustrated that I paid and got a product which does not work but I can’t return as I come to know only after opening it. Waste of money and only supported for US and UK. One of them is damaged and Abbott says they will replace for free but realized I am in Singapore and says ah ha sorry not supported.

The device mobile app is not available in Saudi Arabia. App only available in US and UK

Do not buy if you are not living in US or UK as you will not be able to use the product without downloading the app which is not available in your country app store