Android 13: Dangerous disconnections to blood glucose meters

Owners of devices with Android OS beware. It has now become known that a bug in Android 13 causes blood glucose meters to lose the wireless connection to the smartphone in some cases. This can be a great danger for diabetics.

Disharmony between Android 13 and blood glucose meters

Smartphones have long since ceased to serve merely as entertainment devices. Rather, they have become an integral part of our daily lives. This also applies to the areas of sports and health. The pocket-sized companions can be used, for example, to track steps or check sleep at night. The use of medical devices is also becoming increasingly popular. The smartphone is particularly useful if you need to check your health regularly, as most people always carry it with them anyway. Meanwhile, blood glucose meters can also be connected to the smartphone via Bluetooth. However, Android 13 seems to have had some problems with this for quite some time. These are manifested by regular disconnections. Ironically, this is of all things a great disadvantage for such measuring devices.

Indeed, their usefulness unfolds only when there is continuous monitoring. Corresponding technology, which is coupled via the wireless connection, should warn the wearer if necessary of a too high or too low blood glucose level. However, a warning is only issued via the smartphone. If there is no connection to the smartphone, the readings cannot be processed. In an emergency, the user then receives no warning, which can pose a real danger to life. This emerges from a report of the ARD. It is true that poor blood sugar levels rarely lead to immediate death. However, other physical consequences can occur that, depending on the current situation, pose a great danger. In particular, if one is currently on a bicycle or even driving a vehicle, so-called insulin shock can cause serious accidents.

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The idea behind smartphone blood glucose monitoring is ingenious in itself. After all, it saves diabetics the regular prick in the finger. Instead, a patch is used that is connected to the subcutaneous tissue. Here, it can measure the blood glucose value and pass it on to the smartphone app. Of course, a stable Bluetooth connection is essential for the whole thing to work. Before worse happens, Google has now taken action. Back in December 2022, the tech company released a patch for its in-house operating system. However, the problem is that some smartphone manufacturers are very slow when rolling out new Android versions. Users are only left to wait here. Abbot, a popular manufacturer of such patch solutions, is also working on a solution to the problem. We can only hope that diabetics will soon be able to take reliable measurements again to prevent worse.