How to see Dexcom G6 glucose on a Garmin watch

How the readings reach your watch

Your G6 transmitter sends to the Dexcom app on your phone. With Share on, the app uploads to Dexcom's servers. GGlance signs in there and puts the value on your watch.

The watch never talks to the transmitter, so Bluetooth range between watch and sensor is irrelevant. What matters is your phone being online and the Dexcom app running.

Setup

1. In the Dexcom app on your phone, open Settings → Share and turn Share on.
2. Add at least one follower. Share only uploads to Dexcom's servers while you are actively sharing, so with zero followers there is nothing to read. You can follow yourself from a second phone with the Dexcom Follow app.
3. Install GGlance from the Connect IQ Store and add it as a glance or widget.
4. In Garmin Connect, open the GGlance settings and choose Dexcom as your source.
5. Enter the login of the person wearing the sensor: the same email, username or phone number and password used in the Dexcom app that publishes the readings.
6. Open the glance. The first sign-in takes a moment, then readings refresh on their own.

G6 specifics

• During the two-hour warm-up there is no value to publish, and the watch will say so rather than show a stale number.
• Calibrations you enter in the Dexcom app flow through normally; GGlance shows whatever Share reports.
• Sensor changes need nothing on the watch. Your account stays the same, so the watch picks up the new sensor when it starts reporting.

GGlance is not a medical device and does not sound alarms. Keep your phone alerts on for that.

Common questions

Does the watch work if my phone is out of reach?

No. The readings come from Dexcom's servers over your phone's connection, so an out-of-range or offline phone means no new values.

Will this drain my watch battery?

GGlance only fetches when the glance is shown or when Garmin wakes it in the background, so the cost is small. See readings, latency and battery.