From experience and some hard learned lessons…

Don’t bother or bug the people who have to wear these to stay alive. It’s very personal to them. Act like guests in their communities. Don’t offer advice or sympathy. Don’t try to defend yourself if somebody is gatekeeping. Just move along.

Save the applicator. Save the box. Take a photo of each. Photograph the side that has a (21) on it. That’s the serial number (12 digits long). You’ll want the serial and pairing code if you ever have to reinstall the app. The pairing code is 4 digits and separate from the serial. Your photos app is great because it saves the dates without having to remember. You need the serial for support requests and the pairing code to redo the Bluetooth pairing.

You can reinstall the app. That’s a useful troubleshooting step to start fresh. You can rejoin the existing sensor session without removing the one you’re wearing. Before a reinstall, try toggling Bluetooth, relaunching the app or rebooting your phone. Some Android phones might require toggling or rebooting and it’s largely Android’s fault. (But hopefully fixed soon by Google and Samsung?)

Account

Remember if you signed up via email or SMS. The Dexcom account doesn’t use those interchangeably. You can easily end up with multiple accounts.

Support

Have an issue with the product? Tell the chatbot about it at stelo.com. The tech support phone line doesn’t take Stelo calls. You get up to 3 courtesy replacements for any reason, but verified product failures don’t count against that. They need your serial number to verify things, so look below for how to find that. Don’t lie about a failure, the app and sensor record what failed, when, and why.

The chat bot is in the lower right part of the website. If you can’t see it, try a different browser or a different device.

Features

Read the user manual. Read the in-app help. Some features (Watch) are only on iOS but not yet on Android. Only the execs and marketing people will tell you what is coming and when. Stelo has some things G7 doesn’t and vice versa.

Stelo doesn’t do Follow.

Stelo doesn’t do low alerts.

There’s no ability to use the APIs, so the various Android accessory apps are out. That seems like it could change at some point.

Blood

Is there blood coming from the middle of the sensor? Look in the product guide or search the Dexcom website for what to do about that. Many people post on Reddit about that.

Accuracy and Adhesion

Is the sensor inaccurate? How inaccurate? If within +/- 10-20% (percent, not points) then it’s accurate. Compare your blood glucose measurement from “now” with the Stelo reading 15-20 minutes from now — there’s a delay between the sugar in your blood and your skin. No, Stelo doesn’t support calibration.

There are false lows from sitting or lying on the sensor, but you will have to confirm it’s actually false by checking your symptoms or doing a fingerstick. This is called a compression low. Look up what people do about it for G7. Sometimes a different placement works better.

Did the sensor fall off? Apply it better.*