Industry News
Quick Verdict
Sugar Sense has released two Connect IQ apps that put live continuous glucose readings on Garmin watches: a glance widget with a three hour graph that the5krunner reports "runs on more than 140 Garmin smartwatch models," and an activity data field that shows glucose next to pace, distance, time and heart rate during a workout. It reads FreeStyle Libre 2, 2 Plus, 3 and 3 Plus through LibreLinkUp, Dexcom G6 and G7 including the 15 day G7 through Dexcom Share, and any Nightscout site. The app itself is free on iOS and Android and the alerts are free with it. The Garmin display is a Premium feature at $9.99 a month or $39.99 a year, with a seven day trial. If you use a Libre and you own a Garmin, this is the first credible answer to a question people have been asking for years.
Now the catch, in three parts. First, if you are a Dexcom user, Garmin has shipped official Dexcom Connect IQ apps since April 2023, and Dexcom's own site promotes seeing "your glucose levels in real time" on compatible Garmin watches, so you may be about to pay for something you already have. Second, the watch is a screen and not a receiver: the5krunner is explicit that "the phone has to be within range, in a pocket or a running belt," because Connect IQ requests ride through the Garmin Connect app over Bluetooth. Third, this is a companion app, not a medical device. The developer says so in both places we looked, and readings should be confirmed against the sensor's own app or a meter before you act on them.
Who Built It, and Why That Matters Here
Sugar Sense is made by Sugar Sense OU, based in Tallinn, Estonia, which is also the seller name on the App Store listing. The5krunner reports that founder Irakli Kurtanidze was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2014, wears a Libre 3 Plus daily with a Dexcom G7 in rotation, and that the team built the product over the past two years.
We mention it because the interesting fact about this launch is not the software, it is the gap the software fills. Dexcom paid to be on Garmin watches. Abbott, whose Libre sensors outsell everything, has not. Abbott's own US product pages list every Libre variant and the Libre app and say nothing at all about smartwatch compatibility, Garmin included. The only statement on device support is about phones: "The FreeStyle Libre systems apps are only compatible with certain mobile devices and operating systems." So the largest CGM platform in the world reaches watch users only through third party developers, and this launch is one of them.
What Runs on What
The two Connect IQ apps have different reach, and the difference will decide whether your watch is included.
| Item | Sugar Sense on Garmin | Official Dexcom Connect IQ apps |
|---|---|---|
| Sensors supported | Libre 2, 2 Plus, 3, 3 Plus via LibreLinkUp; Dexcom G6 and G7 via Dexcom Share; any Nightscout site | Dexcom G6 and G7 only |
| Widget device reach | More than 140 Garmin models | A wide range of Garmin smartwatches |
| Data field requirement | Connect IQ System 7, API 5.0 and up, about 70 current models | Watches plus Edge cycling computers |
| Edge computers | Listed among supported Garmin platforms | Data field only, no widget |
| Cost of the watch display | Premium: $9.99 a month or $39.99 a year | Downloadable from the Connect IQ store |
| Refresh interval | About every 5 minutes | Real time per Dexcom's description |
| Stale reading behavior | Value greys out after 15 minutes without a fresh reading | Not specified |
| Regulatory status | Not a medical device, per the developer | Secondary display and passive monitoring only, per Garmin |
Two details in that table are the ones to check before you subscribe. The widget number and the data field number are not the same: the5krunner reports the widget on 140-plus models but the activity data field limited to "about 70 current models" because it needs Connect IQ System 7. If your reason for wanting this is seeing glucose mid-run rather than glancing at it during the day, an older Garmin may get the widget and not the thing you actually wanted.
The other is that greying out after 15 minutes is a feature, not a bug. A glucose number that silently goes stale is worse than no number, and the fact that the developer built in an explicit staleness cutoff is the single most reassuring design decision in this launch.
The Dexcom Question, Answered Honestly
If you are on a Dexcom, start by installing the free official app before you consider paying anyone.
Garmin announced the Dexcom Connect IQ apps on April 27, 2023, covering the "Dexcom G6 and Dexcom G7 Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) System." There are two of them: a smartwatch app showing "glucose levels and trends" plus "a 3-hour history of glucose levels," and a data field for cycling computers and watches that lets you see "both their glucose levels and performance stats all in one place." Garmin's press release notes Edge devices work only with the data field. Dexcom's own lifestyle devices page still promotes the integration in the present tense.
Garmin's release also carries the caveat that applies to every version of this idea: "The Dexcom Connect IQ apps are only for secondary display of data from the Dexcom CGM system and are for passive monitoring purposes only." Nobody, official or third party, is offering you a watch you can dose insulin from.
So where does Sugar Sense earn its subscription? Three places. If you wear a Libre, because there is no official equivalent. If you run Nightscout, because there is no official anything. And if you rotate sensors, because one app covering Libre, Dexcom and Nightscout is worth more than switching ecosystems every time you change brand, which is exactly the case the founder appears to have built for himself.
One discrepancy we will flag rather than paper over. Sugar Sense's own site lists "Dexcom G6, G7 & ONE" as supported through Dexcom Share, while the5krunner's write-up names only G6 and G7. If you are on Dexcom ONE specifically, confirm that inside the seven day trial before the first charge.
What Is Free and What Is Not
The pricing split here is unusually reasonable and worth spelling out, because the part most people need is the free part.
Sugar Sense's site describes a "Free Forever" tier that includes real time glucose, all alerts including the predictive "heading-low" one, statistics, Time in Range, Care Circle family sharing, Apple Health and Health Connect sync, and a web dashboard. Premium adds the AI food scanner, AI insights, the Apple Watch and Wear OS apps, Live Activity and Dynamic Island, emergency calling and PDF reports, and it is Premium that unlocks the Garmin display. The App Store listing prices it at "Sugar Sense Pro - Monthly $9.99," "Sugar Sense Pro - Yearly $39.99" and a "Family Plan $59.99," which the site describes as covering up to six people per year.
The5krunner draws the important line: the Garmin display is paid, but "alerts stay on the phone, where the Sugar Sense app delivers them, and those alerts are free." If your goal is safety rather than convenience, you can have that for nothing. The $39.99 a year buys glanceability.
One historical note for the athlete crowd. The5krunner points out that "the Libre Sense biosensor that Supersapiens used is discontinued and is not supported." If you came looking for a route back to the Supersapiens experience, this is not it.
Where Vora Fits
This launch is a good illustration of why the plumbing question matters as much as the feature list, and there is a real finding here that we did not expect.
Sugar Sense syncs with Apple Health and Health Connect on its free tier, reading glucose from other apps and writing where enabled. Vora reads from Apple Health and Health Connect rather than talking to sensors directly, so glucose that Sugar Sense writes into those stores is glucose that can sit alongside your sleep, workouts and heart rate instead of living alone in a diabetes app. That is the useful shape of this.
The finding is about the alternative. Dexcom's own lifestyle devices page describes its Apple Health and Google Health Connect sharing and then states that "Both will display glucose information on a three-hour delay, not in real time." So Dexcom's official route into the phone's health store is deliberately lagged by three hours, even though its official route to a Garmin watch is not. If you have ever wondered why your glucose data looks fine on your watch and stale everywhere else, that is why, and it is Dexcom's design choice rather than anything your apps are doing wrong.
What none of this changes: a companion app is not a medical device. Sugar Sense's App Store listing says it "is not a medical device. It does not replace your CGM app, your meter or professional medical advice, and it never provides insulin doses." Treat wrist glucose as context for training and eating decisions, not as a clinical instrument. Our integrations page lists exactly what we read, and which wearable metrics actually sync to Apple Health covers how often the sync story is the thing that decides whether a device is useful to you.
If you are earlier in the decision and still working out whether a CGM belongs on your body at all, our Stelo vs Lingo evidence review compares the two prescription-free sensors a US reader can buy today.