- Lingo Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM). Made by Abbott. Optimize Your Nutrition with Real-time Glucose Data & Insights. 1 Lingo biosensor lasts up to 14 Days*. Works with iOS and Android. US Only.

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!

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 purchased one biosensor from Amazon as an experiment and subsequently purchased a 12-week subscription directly from Lingo. The third biosensor I applied indicated very low glucose levels. Not knowing if I had a medical issue or a technical problem, I contacted customer service. They sent a free replacement biosensor, and the data was in range again, so it was probably a sensor issue. Of the last four sensors I received in the 12-week subscription, only one worked properly. Two of them were inoperable within hours of application. Even though instructions were followed, two of the sensors had connection issues and, when removed, showed loose or bent needles. The final sensor showed very low readings AGAIN and the app said to wait eight hours for data to display. After eight hours, the Lingo app automatically ended the sensor and provided a prompt to contact customer service for a replacement. While the sensors could be replaced gratis, shipping takes a long time. Due to significant frustrations with quality, I researched other options instead of requesting replacement sensors. For a similar price point, Stelo by Dexcom provides biosensors AND water resistant cover patches AND the ability to download data to a CSV file (via Dexcom Clarity) AND the option to forward data to a doctor AND the capability to display data on Apple Watch. After placing an order for a 12-week Stelo plan mid morning on July 28, 2025, all six sensors showed up on my doorstep the morning of July 30, 2025. Note: Lingo ships only two sensors at a time on an extended subscription. The Amazon rating of two stars reflects the small amount of value from the product—mainly learning how these biosensors work, the data they can provide to support well-being decisions, and what I perceive as unfavorable or favorable features to optimize return on investment.

Lingo is easy to put on and and connect to your phone upfront. But it constantly disconnects, which then requires you to turn your Bluetooth on and off and then reconnect it in order for you to see your account out of 10 of them to have been completely dysfunctional, but they do give you your money back pretty easy and or send a replacement the readings though are pretty poor the CGM and a traditional finger poke monitor are different classes obviously but I didn’t realize how far apart the readings would be my Lingo will say that my sugar is below 55 where my finger poke will say I’m at 90 almost every morning. It is off by 15 to 25 points. One thing I do find helpful. That whether the readings are right or wrong, it does help me to see which foods negatively impact my blood sugar more than others. So if you’re just wanting to see what’s happening in your body, it can be helpful but if you are a diabetic, I need accurate reads then I would think twice about using Lingo alone.

I have been using Lingo since January and found this to be a very useful tracking tool despite my own paranoias about health tracking apps. I'm type 2, and tried this out for several reasons- get the BS under control,see what foods /stressor send me in a tail spin,make the necessary corrections, and see if cgms are the way to go for me before requesting the prescription version of dexcom for diabetics. While not 100% accurate, for an OTC grade CGM it's really not that bad. You gotta lower the bar a bit. Its not the high test prescription level sensor. I test these against a regular finger stick with each new application to mentally calibrate. It's consistently off by -20pts. Knowing this, its been fine for me. This is not meant for diabetics type 1 or if you are monitoring for hypoglycemia due to medication use (you really need the legit prescription ones from your Dr.) BUT again, it has been a great tool for better insights. I do wish... 1- there were settings for calibrating. 2-goal A1C's vs a Lingo score? There is an end of the week summary and 30 day progress report with your average glucose reads...which you could easily Google what that translates to for your estimated A1. The tips and pointers in the app are not interesting or helpful to me, but may be for someone who is really needs beginners direction in exercise and healthy food options. 3-Something more useful in the friendly alert pops ups would a call to action to use when your BS spikes "hydrate and do 40 squats to potentially bring your score down ______points" Other insights- -It's painless and easy to apply. -Skin Grip covers are perfect for protecting under water, work outs, showers etc. -Pairs with Cronometer, if you're tracking your diet -macros/consumption. -Connection issues. Some reviews might be user error or maybe its an iphone thing? In my experience during pairing, if you get a pairing failure or lost connection just re-pair the sensor and be patient. Usually takes 2 pairs to get a new one going on your device, and you need to have your device it ON you/or in your pocket during pairing. -No issues with the sensor ending sooner than 14 days. -lost connection error message- usually solved by restarting my phone. Otherwise if I was away from my phone for a period of time, it just takes a few minutes for the lost data to load to the app. Over all good experience with my last 6 orders finger crossed.

A friend of mine was visiting me when she started to check her “glucose reading” on her cellphone. I thought she meant a finger stick result, but she corrected me saying it was a continuous monitoring device. I was impressed by the thing. (I love gadgets!) My own labs had pointed to “borderline diabetic,” which was anxiety producing. Having been an RN in a large hospital, I had seen the results of full-on diabetes, from losing fingers to losing kidneys and developing transplant complications. Not going there! I checked the internet to see what they had to say. It seemed rational, well tested and produced by a reliable company. I decided to try it. It seemed a little expensive as a “One off” trial, but I decided to see for myself. I was—and continue to be—impressed. What struck me most favorably is that it’s a “training device” as well as a simple minute by minute monitor (which it is of course.) It provides the user with information about his/her eating habits and offers “challenges” that can help the user see what they can accomplish on their own. It also has small discussions regarding eating styles and recommendations about healthy activities. It also provides “challenges” that help you focus on things you might have thought unimportant, but which really aren’t, like fluid consumption. Probably the most important aspect of the device is the opportunity to log information about one’s activity, because it engages the user in the whole process. That confronts one with the reality of behavior and outcomes. (It’s also addicting. There’s nothing like making oneself the center stage character in one’s own drama!) There are note sites for “food and drink,” “exercise,” and “other.” These are placed along a timeline under the graph, so one can see what was going on when the graph went up or down. By doing some of the “challenges” one learns how much one’s own decisions make an actual difference. Food and drink, and exercise are obvious. I use the “other” for charting things like my blood pressure, pulse, sleep, mood, willingness to be active, fogginess (I’m almost 80 and am forgetful at times), and other things relative to my overall health. In following these through time, I came to finally realize what modified these aspects of my life by diet choices alone! As a former RN I “knew” that but didn’t practice it; I just advised it. (That was “for other people,” of course; I was Wonder Woman—the suit has long since been sent to Good Will!) The normal parameters on the graph showed me that my glucose was peaking above 140 even to greater than 200 at times, then crashing shortly thereafter to below 70. Needless to say, I was foggy, tired even after sleeping to the point that my cats were trying to determine if I’d died and there’d be no breakfast today. I’m more energetic, have started doing crafts I’d not done in ages, read more, my thinking is clearer, I no longer wonder why I decided to cross the room in the few seconds it took to get there, etc. I ask you, what’s to lose for a few dollars?