So I started using the Livongo blood sugar meter a few weeks ago because my work offers it as a perk and the meter, test strips and lancets are free. It works pretty good but I am puzzled about how it is communicating my readings with my phone when I have Bluetooth, NFC and Wi-Fi turned off. It also shows up on my member portal on the website like immediately.
I understand that it must have some sort of wi-fi connection to the website, but how is it getting through to my phone? Is it backdooring through the app on my phone? If it is it’s doing so faster that I thought possible.
What do you mean by “backdooring through the app on my phone”? Like beowulff I wonder if you just forgot to mention cellular data when listing data transfer you have turned off, or if you don’t realize that is another way your phone receives data.
The Livongo manual isn’t particularly straight forward about describing it’s data capabilities, but although it mainly references “wifi”, it seems pretty clear from the description of the “Airplane mode” setting that it also connects to a cell network.
So I put my phone in Airplane mode and the website updated but my phone did not. I guess my term backdooring was referring to the app receiving an update via cellular from the website. I’m guessing that the meter isn’t directly sending data to my phone but uploads it to the cloud and the Livongo app on my phone retrieves the information via cellular data.
I’ve hooked other devices to my phone (like a blood pressure monitor) but they always did it through Bluetooth. I was surprised how fast the app updated, I expected there to be a lag. Now I’m wondering if the app is draining my battery since it must always be looking for a new reading.
“Turning on Airplane Mode will turn off access to the cellular network so you will not be able to transmit your readings when it is turned on. This is useful if you are taking off or landing during a flight.”
(This is talking about turning on Airplane Mode on the meter, not on your phone. The meter itself has an airplane mode to disable the cell data traffic)
and
"The About menu contains important information about your Livongo Meter
including the Model number, Firmware revision, transmitting module ID
number (called the “IMEI” number), and the wireless card number (“SIM
ID”), all of which are used to troubleshoot any issues you might have. " (These are things a cell phone would have to utilize the wireless network)
So, it’s not communicating directly to your phone. It’s uploading results to your account via the cellular data network. Your phone is pulling those results from your account, not from the device.
FWIW I have a medical device that uses cellular data to downlink data to the server that wants to track my usage of it (or non usage) for insurance purposes. Definitely not wifi. It’s supposed to “just work” and it barely does, from where I live out in the boonies. Its signal is weak, similar to my mobile phone.
OTOH I have a very strong wifi signal in the house, but I was not ever asked by the device to setup a connection to wifi.