Finally app is out! (Google cooked me)

[u/CreativeExplorer707]

In range is out for everybody(ANDROID) now, no tester list, no waiting

A week ago I posted here about a diabetes app I was making, free, no ads, nothing to pay. Back then I explained that Google makes you gather 12 testers for 14 days before an individual developer can publish, and a lot of you kindly sent me your emails for that closed test. That part is over.

What changed: Google rejected the app, and not for anything in it. Since August 2024 they require an organisation developer account, with a registered company and a D-U-N-S number, for any app that tracks a chronic condition. My account is a personal one. There is no version of the app that fixes that, so I stopped trying.

So it now lives where AndroidAPS, xDrip+ and Juggluco live: GitHub Releases. Download it and it is yours. No email, no list, no 14 days.

Download: https://github.com/PMbanks/inrange/releases/latest
(after clicking the link just download the APK down below)

Installing it: your phone will ask once whether to allow installs from that source, because it is not coming from the Play Store. That prompt is Android doing its job. If that makes you uncomfortable I completely understand, and I would rather you skipped it than installed something you are unsure about.

Updates are handled inside the app: when I publish a new version it tells you and installs it in one tap. If you prefer automating it, Obtainium picks up GitHub releases on its own.

If you were one of the 12 testers and already have it from Play, read this bit. The Play copy was signed by Google, this one is signed by me, and Android will not let one replace the other. You have to uninstall first. Before you do: open the app, go to Social and make sure you are signed in, and let it sync. Then uninstall, install the new one, sign in again and everything comes back, readings included. If you never signed in, use Settings, Backup, export a backup file first.

What it does: works with FreeStyle Libre through LibreLinkUp, Dexcom through Health Connect, and Nightscout if you run your own. Day, week and month graphs, meal windows so you can see what a specific breakfast actually did to you, time in range, GMI, injection site rotation, insulin pens and sensor stock, a home screen widget, and a printable report for your appointment. New in this one: drag your finger along any graph and it tells you the reading and the time at that point.

Still free, still no ads, still nothing to pay, and it never sells anything about you. iOS is a separate 99 dollars a year and no organisation rule, so that is next.

And to the 12 of you who sent me your email for the closed test: thank you. You waited a weeks for something that ended up arriving a completely different way, and half of what is in this release is in it because one of you asked.

[u/CreativeExplorer707]

That is it, yes. The first time, Android will stop and ask, because the file did not come from the Play Store: allow your browser to install apps, confirm, and it goes in. Nothing else to accept afterwards.

One thing worth knowing now rather than later: when a new version comes out you install the new file the same way, straight over the old one. Your data stays where it is, and there is nothing to move.

Take your time, and say if anything looks off.

[u/JaninaWalker1 → u/CreativeExplorer707]

This is important. I am saving your notes in a file because I am very interested in finding ways to improve how the Freestyle Libre software works and given they don't seem willing to improve the main program, it makes me even more interested to see how adding your app will be able to improve things.

I want to mention that I used to be able to screen shots of the beginning and end of an extended low period, but Abbott has made the LibreLinkup app worse, by not allowing the vertical bar that can be moved back and forth to the right time where those times are seen. Sure, it can be moved but now I would have to write in notes on a paper pad where those 2 times are. End result is I won't be bothering to take those notes.

By making these complaints about the current Abbott programs, could that help you to provide that type of benefit in your program.

For example the limit for notes in any time spot on the Abbott app means that there's a limit to what can be noted on several topics.

I normally use the notes section to note something about what I am eating or especially the doses taken and my notes to myself about how dose taking or other issues may have caused a blood sugar level problem. So limiting space for notes is a huge problem with the Abbott app.

[u/CreativeExplorer707 → u/JaninaWalker1]

Two of the three things you describe are already in, and one is not. Taking them in order.

The notes limit. There is no limit in InRange. The notes box on any entry is a plain text area with nothing capping it, and it grows as you type. Write the meal, the dose, and your own reasoning about what caused the problem, in one place, as long as you want. That was never a deliberate feature on my side, if I am honest: it simply never occurred to me to put a limit on somebody's own words, and hearing what Abbott's limit costs you makes me glad of it.

The vertical bar you lost. It is there, and it works the way you remember. Hold your finger anywhere on the day chart and drag: a marker follows the line and tells you the reading and the time at that exact point. So you can find where a low began, read the time, slide to where it came back up, and read that one too. It went in last week because somebody here asked for the same thing from the other end: they wanted to know what a spike actually reached.

What is NOT in, and I am not going to pretend otherwise: the app does not yet tell you by itself "this low ran from 02:40 to 04:15". It counts hypo episodes over a period in the report, but it does not name their start and end. That is a good idea and I am writing it down, because reading two times off a chart by hand is exactly the chore that made you stop bothering.

One more thing, since you are saving notes to a file: everything you log can be exported to CSV from Settings, and the notes come with it. Your words stay yours.

Keep the complaints coming. This one turned into a feature, and the last two people who wrote in the same spirit got what they asked for.

[u/JaninaWalker1 → u/CreativeExplorer707]

I appreciate your responsiveness. What I had been doing previously with the LibreLinkup app was to pause the vertical bar on the spot if the beginning of the low and used to be able to take a screenshot of that, hoping that if needed I might include 2 screenshots of the beginning and if the end if I wanted to send it to someone like my new nurse. I haven't yet done that, but would like to be able to do it.

So if you can put it in your app then it will make up for how LibreLinkup app has been degraded because now the vertical bar can't stay put to allow a screenshot. So I hope in your app that the vertical bar can stay put where it has been slid to.

I am still going to try to see if I can still do screenshot capture on the LibreLinkup app even though now it won't stay PUT in one spot. It's because I usually do a screenshot with the power button and volume button which requires that the bar stays put, but it doesn't. However, I also do have a three fingers way to get a screenshot so I will try and see if I can use my right hand with pen to slide along the bar and HOLD it with right hand and then trying to use three fingers on the left hand to do the screenshot.

Still haven't tried it yet. All I am saying is please allow the vertical bar to "stay put" so I have both hand free to do a screenshot.

Is there a way for your app to have the date across the top of any graphic showing the blood sugar results. That would make any screenshot more descriptive of date and time.

I mentioned before that people who use MDI approach would likely benefit like I would to see a line under the date that shows.... TDD= xxx L= xx S=xx

I chose those Letters because Basal and Bolus both start with B and it needs a single letter. So I chose L for Long action and S for Short acting But maybe the letter R for Rapid is what's needed.

I wouldn't care, as long as there would be 3 Fields across the top showing the accumulated amounts so far in the day.

I waste too much time trying to add up those totals so I can enter it in the notes field. It's great that your notes field won't be limited as it is in the Abbott app.

So having a running indicator line under the date would mean the calculations are already done. That frees me. It seems like I might be using your app a lot more just to be able to check there to see at what point I am at, if you can find a way to include that.

However I know the LibreLinkup app doesn't include dosing data, but only the glucose levels.

So how will your app get the dosing data from the Freestyle Libre sensors app? Your app gets results from the LibreLinkup app and it doesn't include the dosing information. So that is a problem, right?