8 Apps To Improve Your Time in Range

Diabetes apps like Glucose Buddy, eddii, mySugr, ChatCGM, and Happy Bob can be useful tools to monitor and improve blood glucose measures, including time in range.
Smartphone apps can simplify diabetes data tracking, and handle daily tasks like logging blood sugar, meals, and insulin dosing. These apps can reduce the time spent thinking about diabetes management, as well as make the process more engaging, more insightful – and less burdensome.
Here we've collected apps for iPhone and Android smartphones that take different approaches to collecting diabetes data and making sense of blood sugar trends, which can help boost time in range.
Most of these apps seamlessly sync with the readings a glucometer or continuous glucose monitor (CGM) is already storing on your phone. Some of the apps incorporate blood sugar readings using a game-like approach to encourage healthy habits. Others use your phone's camera to record meals and then show the effects on blood sugar. And artificial intelligence is increasingly taking on some of the load: logging meals and treatment, identifying blood sugar patterns, and even answering questions about trends.
While some of these apps charge a subscription for advanced features, all are free to download and try to see if they meet your needs.
1. Undermyfork
The idea of the Undermyfork app is straightforward: Take photos of your meals with your smartphone instead of typing in the details of the meal you're about to eat to log it.
The app analyzes the photo to determine the carb count and other meal ingredients so you don't have to. It then syncs that information with your CGM or glucometer readings to determine how your treatment plan dealt with the post-meal blood sugar rise.
You can also share your meal and blood sugar reports with a healthcare provider to help see how certain ingredients, along with the timing and amount of insulin, are affecting your blood sugar.
Cost: Free.
Available for iPhone and Android
2. eddii
The eddii app offers a fun way to track readings from a Dexcom G6 or G7 CGM through games and quizzes. While designed for all ages, the app's game features are likely to appeal most to children with diabetes and their parents. Parents can add rewards (such as access to in-app games and real gift cards) into the app, and kids can connect to friends with diabetes. A chatbot offers mental health support through conversations along with health tips.
Recently the eddii app has expanded to offer in-app, virtual pediatric endocrinology visits in dozens of states in the U.S. The service also offers endo telehealth for adults in nine states.
Cost: Free for most features. Some premium features cost $5.99 for a subscription or $47.99 per year. Virtual doctor visit costs vary based on health insurance and copays.
Available for iPhone and Android
3. Diabetes Cockpit
The Diabetes Cockpit app uses artificial intelligence to review data collected on your phone and provide feedback on where improvements could be made.
The app analyzes blood sugar levels, carbs consumed, insulin delivered, and steps taken, among other data.
Diabetes data can be automatically pulled from the iPhone's Health app, which stores data from fitness trackers or meal tracking apps, for example, as well as your CGM system or glucometer.
Alternatively, you can set the app to import blood sugar and treatment data from Nightscout, an open-source app that tracks food and treatment information.
The app takes your diabetes data collected over time and converts it into useful graphs and reports showing potential patterns and trends. An AI chatbot called Sam can also weigh in. The bot can answer pre-set questions like, "Any insights around my time in range" or "Any patterns regarding food recently?" Plus, you can ask your own questions for the bot to answer.
Cost: Free for up to 99 questions for the AI chatbot Sam. After that, it's between $1.99 for five more messages and $9.99 for 50.
Available for iPhone
4. Glucose Buddy
Glucose Buddy takes a multi-pronged approach to managing diabetes data, which combines tracking with in-app coaching and glucometer supplies. Like other apps, Glucose Buddy logs diabetes data – including blood sugar, daily steps, and exercise – and provides weekly reports with suggestions to improve glucose levels.
Glucose Buddy can also use your smartphone's camera to make meal logging simpler. Snap a photo, and the app analyzes the image and taps into a large food database to reduce manual entries for carbs, fat, and protein. That information is tracked along with your CGM or glucometer readings to show how certain meals affect post-meal blood sugar rises. That data can also be shared with your healthcare provider who can weigh in and potentially make adjustments, if needed.
In addition, with a subscription plan, you can add in-app coaching using text chat from a certified diabetes educator. The monthly subscription plans include test strips and a smart glucometer that syncs wirelessly with the app.
Cost: The coaching plan starts at $20 monthly. A $30 plan comes with a glucometer, lancets, and 50 test strips a month. Their $60 plan includes unlimited test strips.
Available for iPhone and Android
5. mySugr
Millions of people use the mySugr app, which takes diabetes data and presents it in a friendly, animated display for spotting trends and patterns. Blood sugar, carb intake, insulin dosing, meals, and physical activity appear as part of a point system. In-app challenges help motivate users to track data that helps time in range.
mySugr syncs data from CGM and glucometer readings along with your physical activity (such as steps tracked by your phone's sensors or fitness apps).
An upgraded version of the app includes coaching from certified diabetes educators, who can offer guidance based on data from the app, via in-app chat.
Cost: Free for most features. A pro subscription ($2.99 monthly or $27.99 annually) provides additional reports and adds a search feature for meals and activity, as well as the ability to take meal photos for tracking, among other features. Coaching plans vary from $19.99 for a month or $199.99 for a year.
Available for iPhone and Android
6. Glooko
Like other tools, the Glooko app tracks an array of diabetes data in one place: blood glucose, weight, insulin, exercise, and food intake. The main appeal of Glooko is its wide support for insulin pens and pumps, glucometers, CGM systems, and fitness devices of all makes.
Glooko also syncs data with an exhaustive list of third-party apps (including activity trackers like RunKeeper, Strava, and FitBit).
The app and companion website produce easy-to-read graphs that display this data from varied sources, making it easier to spot trends and glean insights.
You can see how blood sugar responds to certain foods, physical activity, or insulin doses at specific times of day (or when you may be having trouble staying in range).
That data can also be followed remotely by healthcare providers who can review the readings as they happen for possible treatment guidance.
Cost: The Glooko app is free to download and use.
Available for iPhone and Android
7. Happy Bob
The Happy Bob app displays an animated character to add some fun and interactivity to the daily grind of tracking diabetes data. There's also a game element: Users collect stars as they meet targets, and can set daily goals to add motivation to increase time in range.
You can choose an animated Happy Bob character to suit different moods and personalities. When blood sugar is in range, the character aptly named Happy sends words of encouragement, while Bob’s alter ego Snarky leans into sarcasm. And the app's Karen mood offers a know-it-all attitude.
While more research is needed to show whether games can improve time in range, some studies have shown that combining fun and learning into diabetes management can have positive effects on mental well-being, education, and physical activity.
Cost: Happy Bob offers a free week trial; after that, a subscription costs $9.99 monthly or $59.99 yearly.
Available for iPhone and Android
8. ChatCGM
ChatCGM is an AI-based assistant that can log and analyze meals, review CGM and insulin dosing data, and offer insights in reports.
Take a photo of what you're about to eat and ChatCGM will identify the ingredients and provide a carb count. You can also tell the AI to log meals, insulin dosing, and carbs to the open-source software Nightscout.
The AI can spot blood sugar trends, such as recurring highs and lows at the same time every day, which can be shared with your healthcare team to consider adjustments to treatment.
To use ChatCGM, you'll need to download the Telegram chat app and then sign up on the ChatCGM website. Once logged in, you can chat with the AI, which along with reviewing your data, offers encouragement in a conversational way.
Cost: The basic plan is $5 a month for AI chat with voice commands and carb estimation from images. The $10 monthly plan adds the ability to read CGM data. The $20 monthly plan adds weekly reports based on CGM data.
The Telegram app is available for iPhone and Android.
The bottom line
Smartphone apps for diabetes management can help collect your blood sugar, meal, insulin, and exercise data in one place. Doing so makes it easier to graph the data, visualize trends, and share reports with your healthcare provider.
Some apps take a game-like approach to diabetes management, with the goal of keeping users motivated to track their progress and improve their time in range.
Smartphone technology, including AI assistance, is becoming increasingly sophisticated in managing diabetes data. AI assistants can count carbs in a photo of a meal, analyze recurring blood sugar patterns from CGM readings, and answer questions from users looking to make sense of a steady stream of data.
Learn more about diabetes technology here: