Fitbit Launches Blood Glucose Tracking For Diabetic Users

Fitbit already gives you the ability to monitor your heart health, stress, and blood oxygen levels on some of its watches. Now society is watching blood sugarmonitoring with a new feature in the Fitbit app.

The addition is good news for diabetics, as well as for anyone with a medical condition who may need to monitor their blood sugar. But to be clear, it’s not a non-invasive alternative to pricking your finger with a glucometer. This is a software update that allows users to record or import their blood sugar and then see how it relates to other health parameters such as sleep, exercise, and food. over time. The app will also allow users to set custom ranges so they can potentially identify other factors that may be affecting their blood sugar. You can also activate reminders on the wrist to record your blood sugar.

Fitbit Premium users get some additional perks, like see how often their glucose levels are within a target range each month and other data trends. Premium users will also have the option to share their blood sugar data through Fitbit’s Wellness Report feature.

While users can manually record their measurements, Fitbit says anyone who uses LifeScan’s OneTouch Reveal app can automatically import their data as well. The company says it plans to integrate other meters and applications soon. To activate the feature, you can go to the Discover tab in the Fitbit app, click Health and Fitness Stats, and add blood sugar. (If you don’t see it yet, you might have to wait a bit as Fitbit says the feature will roll out this month.)

More broadly, it looks like blood sugarsurveillance could be the next big thing in health technology. Rumor has it that the two Apple and Samsung are work on ways to non-invasively monitor blood sugar their next smartwatches. We have also seen non-invasive blood sugarmonitoring of the smartwatch prototype at CES of this year. These are certainly more ambitious than what Fitbit currently offers, but these watches also may never see the light of day. A device that inaccurately reports blood sugar levels could be a lot more life threatening than saying, a wobbly ECG reading, so these proposed devices also need FDA clearance before they hit the market.

Fitbit functionality does not need FDA clearance because it is strictly a tool to help you monitor your data. That said, it does come with a caveat: it’s not a replacement for a proper diagnosis from your doctor, nor something you should base your treatment on without talking to a doctor.

Fitbit is also making its health features accessible to more users by expanding access to its Health Metrics dashboard. The feature was introduced with the Sense and Versa 3 last fall, but it will now be available to Versa 2, Inspire 2, and Charge 4 users, although you’ll be limited to trends from last week. Like with blood sugar monitoring, Fitbit Premium members have the possibility to also see the personal ranges in this dashboard. Charge 4 users are also getting a little SpO2 treatment in an upcoming update that will allow them to see readings directly on the wrist; they will also be able to display SpO2 and skin temperature data in the dashboard. Meanwhile, Fitbit Sense users in Canada, New Zealand and the United States will also receive the ECG app this month.