Issy-Les-Moulineaux, France-based Withings, a leader in connected health, has
partnered
with Abbott's Lingo OTC CGM to bring glucose monitoring technology to all Withings users.
The collaboration aims to give millions of users a deeper understanding of their metabolism, and how it impacts their overall health and well-being, based on continuously tracking glucose.
Withings created the first connected scale in 2009, and is currently used by over 15 million people worldwide. Its existing ecosystem measures over 90 biomarkers, including pulse wave velocity, sleep, heart rate, and blood pressure.
In 2024, the company
made
Time Magazine’s
Best Inventions of 2024 list for its BeamO device for home check-ups. Now, it is integrating glucose into its arsenal of tools for users.
Beginning in Q1 2026, Abbott's Lingo and Withings will provide their initial joint offerings, giving patients the ability to access their glucose data by pairing the Withings app with Apple Health and Health Connect by Android.
When Withings decided to integrate glucose data through a new partnership, there were several factors the company needed to consider when choosing a long-term partner.
“When we decided to integrate glucose, we were looking for a partner that we shared a long-term vision and preventative consumer health approach with, rather than purely a medical or disease management approach. Lingo is designed for people who are not living with diabetes. That is really aligning with Withing’s DNA here. Abbott brings scientific credibility, regulatory expertise, and scale which to use is critical when doing something as critical as glucose, which is still a sensitive biomarker,” Jean-Baptiste Fontes, Withings' VP of Strategic Partnerships and Business Development, told
MD+DI.
“We want to bring that to a large audience and being with a partner like Abbott was critical for us. What is interesting with the Lingo approach is they focus a lot on education and behavioral change, as well as simplicity. That matches our mission as well to make complex data understandable. Those main things made us choose Abbott.”
Glucose monitoring plays a large role in understanding overall health and metabolic function, and glucose data can help patients understand how food, activity, and stress impact energy levels, mood, and sleep quality.
“Definitely glucose is a foundation for metabolic health. We know that metabolic health sits at the center of longer-term health outcomes. So everything from weight management, sleep, and even mental clarity. At Withings, we are covering most of these pillars already. We are already covering activity, vascular health, body composition, BP. So I think glucose here really completed that picture and is really giving users new visibility into nutrition and lifestyle choices,” Fontes said. “We at Withings really believe that metabolic health is the next big measure of importance. Right now, we all know step counts and tracking metrics. I think metabolic health is going to be really important, and we know that people don’t just want to understand the data itself, but also how the body will respond.”
Maintaining healthy glucose is shown to reduce the risk of insulin resistance, Type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. Currently, more than 98 million Americans have prediabetes.
Currently, just two
FDA-approved
over-the-counter CGMs are available in the U.S., with one being
Abbott’s Lingo
, which was first approved in June 2024, and
Dexcom’s Stelo Glucose
Biosensor System, which was approved in March of the same year.
This new partnership is based on targeting patients over 18 who are not insulin reliant. While non insulin reliant individuals don’t need CGMs in the same way that diabetic patients do, Fontes still believes that there is a market there for OTC CGMs.
While the OTC CGM market is currently valued at $370-$486 million, due to wellness trends, it is expected to reach $2.14 billion globally by 2034.
“The addressable market is very large. Tens of millions of consumers who do not have diabetes but who are concerned about longevity, weight, energy, prevention, performance. We really see, right now, a strong demand on several trends,” he told
MD+DI.
“First, we see growing interest in metabolic health and insulin sensitivity. We are seeing that in Europe more and more, not only in the U.S. Also, we are seeing the rise of personalized nutrition and biofeedback. Consumers are moving from reactive health to proactive health. Users are not just looking for diagnostics, but they are looking for insights and guidance. I think that is what the partnership brings up.”
This partnership expands Withings' footprint in metabolic health, as community members in the U.S. will now be able to access their glucose data using the Lingo app. Lingo CGMs are also now available for purchase on Withings U.S. website for $89 for two Lingo biosensors.
For the first year of the new Withings Abbott collaboration, the two companies plan to focus first and foremost on successful adoption and patient engagement, not biting off more than they can chew.
“For us, in year one, success will be about adoption, engagement, and learning. So adoption would be that the consumers will be willing to integrate glucose into their Withings experience. Making sure we really have that connection and that fit there. Engagement, they understand the data and the changing behaviors, whether that is food choices, timing of activity patterns, how they will use the Withings app in the future,” Fontes said.
“And of course learning. For the first year, both companies will gain more and more insights into how consumers will use their data outside of the biological context and so that means refining the educational algorithms and experiences will be key. Right now, the primary goal is to build a strong foundation so that after that, we can prolong use.”
While year one will largely focus on app integration and learning for users, that is not the end of the road for this new partnership. Fontes hopes that this is the beginning of a long connection between the two biotracking powerhouses.
“Right now, we see this partnership as a starting point and not a one-off. Abbott has a very large and broad portfolio of sensing and diagnostic technologies, and there is a strong potential to explore integrating additional biomarkers. For the next two to three years, our goal is to really go deeper into personalization and to combine multiple signals. Right now, we can see our ambition is to move to true metabolic intelligence. So now we are starting to launch Withing's intelligence to merge all of our combined data to try and understand it deeper. Having more and more types of biomarkers will be key for us,” Fontes said.
Abbott has been a sought after partner in the diabetes space over the last year, largely led by its successful OTC approval.
The company has
announced
recent CGM collaborations with major players including
Medtronic
, Beta Bionics, Tandem, and Ypsomed’s partner CamDiab.
“What was key for us was trust. We know introducing glucose to a nonmedical audience requires very high accuracy and clarity. That’s why partnering with Abbott was important. At the same time, as Withings, we are bringing our expertise, patented designs and long-term engagement,” Fontes said. “We really think we have created a great match here to merge a credible medical grade technology. When you have that trust, you can create an impactful and scalable preventative health impact.”