A glucose studying usually lives contained in the app linked to a steady glucose monitor. Irakli Kurtanidze wished his someplace tougher to overlook.
Kurtanidze, founding father of Sugar Sense and a Sort 1 diabetic for greater than 12 years, spends a lot of his working day at a pc. Pulling out a cellphone repeatedly to test a quantity that may change all through the day by no means made a lot sense to him.
He wished to see it within the nook of his pc display screen. On his watch. In his browser. Within the automobile. Or hear it by asking a voice assistant.
There was one other, extra severe cause.
“There have been nights when a single alarm didn’t wake me,” Kurtanidze mentioned. “I’m not blaming any product; deep sleep is typically stronger than one cellphone.”
That have helped form Sugar Sense, a steady glucose monitoring companion app designed to take readings from current CGM techniques and make them obtainable throughout an unusually broad assortment of on a regular basis units.
Sugar Sense at present connects with FreeStyle Libre, Dexcom and Nightscout knowledge and may show glucose info via iPhone, Android, Apple Watch, Garmin watches, a reside internet dashboard, Home windows system tray, Mac menu bar, browser extensions and Amazon Alexa.
For Kurtanidze, the target wasn’t to interchange the producer’s CGM app. It was to construct one other layer round it.
One Glucose Studying, Extra Locations to See It
Kurtanidze has used FreeStyle Libre since its early days and likewise makes use of a Dexcom G7 occasionally.
Altering sensor ecosystems uncovered one other annoyance. Every got here with its personal utility and sharing preparations. Switching may imply a distinct interface and having to reconnect members of the family who comply with his glucose readings.
“I wished one account that treats FreeStyle Libre, Dexcom and Nightscout the identical,” he mentioned.
Then got here what he calls the “each display screen” thought.
“I work at a pc a lot of the day, and a cellphone within the pocket is a poor residence for a quantity you reside by,” Kurtanidze mentioned. “I wished the studying within the nook of my display screen, on my watch face, within the browser toolbar, on the automobile show, even by voice.”
Sugar Sense first went reside on Apple’s App Retailer in April 2025. Its ecosystem expanded considerably throughout 2026.
Browser extensions reached Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari in July. August introduced Alexa, a Home windows system-tray app, Mac menu-bar entry and the Android app on Google Play. Garmin help adopted on August 24 via a glucose widget and knowledge subject on Garmin’s Join IQ retailer.
The result’s that somebody engaged on a pc, for instance, can look at a present glucose studying with out opening a cellphone app. An Alexa consumer can ask for the newest studying aloud.
That breadth is one among Sugar Sense’s central claims, however Kurtanidze is cautious about how he states it.
The corporate says Sugar Sense operates on “extra surfaces than any diabetes app we all know of,” somewhat than claiming categorically that no competitor can match it.
Checking The Competitors
Kurtanidze equipped NewsBlaze with the corporate’s comparability of official CGM functions and unbiased companion instruments. He mentioned each row was rechecked in opposition to present official sources in August 2026.
Dexcom G7, for instance, helps iPhone, Android and Apple Watch, together with direct-to-watch functionality, in addition to official Garmin apps and Siri. However the comparability discovered no Dexcom shopper desktop utility, browser extension, Alexa talent or reside shopper internet dashboard.
Gluroo helps iPhone, Android, Apple Watch, Put on OS, an internet app and Siri. Sugarmate offers iPhone, Android and internet entry, though its former Mac utility and Alexa talent had been discontinued in January 2025.
Nightscout is a notable exception to easy comparisons. As a self-hosted platform, it may be prolonged throughout many units and providers, together with voice assistants. However customers should deploy and preserve their very own server and may have separate third-party functions for particular person units.
Sugar Sense itself can use Nightscout as an information supply.
Kurtanidze mentioned the corporate would welcome proof of an utility it has ignored.
“If a reader exhibits us an app that covers extra, we’ll stand corrected,” he mentioned.
That qualification issues. The helpful distinction isn’t merely what number of platforms seem on a advertising checklist, however whether or not an individual can receive a reside glucose studying via them with out assembling a set of separate instruments.
The Characteristic Sugar Sense Refuses to Construct
Sugar Sense extends the locations the place CGM info can seem, however Kurtanidze has drawn a agency boundary round what the software program ought to do with that info.
It doesn’t advocate insulin doses.
He provides three causes, so as: security, regulation and product design.
“Insulin wants shift with meals, exercise, stress and sickness, and a dosing suggestion that’s fallacious even as soon as can put somebody in hospital,” Kurtanidze mentioned.
“Dosing belongs to the particular person, their care group and, the place prescribed, regulated dosing techniques. A companion app just isn’t the place for that math, so we merely by no means do it.”
The boundary extends to Sugar Sense’s AI options. Its meals scanner and insights features are designed to refuse dosing questions.
Kurtanidze mentioned the corporate intentionally operates as a supplemental info software somewhat than transferring into medical-device territory related to dose calculation.
Sugar Sense additionally tells customers it enhances official CGM functions and will by no means be their solely technique of detecting a low-glucose occasion.
That distinction turns into notably essential as a result of the appliance consists of its personal alerts and may present an advance warning of an anticipated low.
Kurtanidze mentioned his expertise sleeping via an alarm led him to need “a second, unbiased layer with its personal alarms,” together with a forecast that warns roughly 20 minutes earlier than an anticipated low and alerts designed to differentiate an pressing low from a much less essential excessive.
Constructing From a Nation The place CGM Entry Is Restricted
There may be additionally an financial cause Kurtanidze thinks about diabetes software program in a different way.
He lives in Georgia and buys his personal CGM sensors from Germany.
Georgia operates a state diabetes program that has offered CGM techniques freed from cost to youngsters with Sort 1 diabetes since 2022. In accordance with info equipped by Kurtanidze, grownup eligibility is restricted to sure classes, together with individuals with blindness, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Kurtanidze doesn’t fall inside these classes.
“An grownup with kind 1 diabetes and none of these circumstances, which is my case, receives no state or insurance coverage protection for sensors,” he mentioned.
Abbott’s Libre just isn’t formally marketed in Georgia, he added, which is why he purchases sensors from Germany.
Kurtanidze equipped NewsBlaze with supporting materials together with a peer-reviewed research of Georgian households printed in Healthcare in 2021, which reported that FreeStyle Libre was not sponsored in Georgia and described households buying units overseas. He additionally offered Georgian sources in regards to the subsequent state CGM program.
That have additionally influenced Sugar Sense’s enterprise mannequin.
Kurtanidze mentioned the corporate set a rule from the start that its core security features would stay free.
Actual-time readings, glucose alerts and household following can be found with out cost. Sugar Sense as a substitute costs for extra comfort and evaluation options, together with the Apple Watch app, AI-powered insights, its meals scanner and CarPlay.
“We determined what needed to be free first and constructed the mannequin round that, not the opposite approach spherical,” Kurtanidze mentioned.
He mentioned the free security layer earns belief and each day use, whereas some customers later select premium options.
“It really works as a enterprise exactly as a result of it was not designed as a funnel,” he mentioned.
For Kurtanidze, that call is tied on to the price of residing with diabetes.
“When you realize first-hand what this situation already prices individuals, charging them once more to listen to an alarm at night time was by no means on the desk,” he mentioned.
A Companion, Not a Substitute
Sugar Sense stays a comparatively younger unbiased product working alongside a lot bigger diabetes know-how firms.
Kurtanidze declined to reveal its present consumer depend or detailed platform-usage numbers. He mentioned iPhone stays its largest platform as a result of it launched greater than a yr earlier than the others.
Kurtanidze declined to reveal its present consumer depend or detailed platform-usage numbers. He mentioned iPhone stays its largest platform as a result of it launched greater than a yr earlier than the others.
However the underlying design alternative behind Sugar Sense is instantly seen.
As a substitute of asking individuals with diabetes to repeatedly return to at least one utility to see their glucose studying, Sugar Sense is trying to place that studying wherever they already occur to be.
For Kurtanidze, that may imply the nook of a pc display screen through the working day, a watch whereas away from his desk, Alexa when his arms are occupied — or one other alarm when one cellphone isn’t sufficient.
