OMRON connect US/CAN/EMEA 4+

I can’t believe how utterly this update ruined this app for. This smacks of either some dumb**s thinking they have to revamp everything just so they can say they did something, or OMRON is making this “free” app (that we really paid hundreds of dollars for their equipment to use) borderline useless to try to force a new revenue stream by making us pay for something else to get what we want. It’s now more difficult to input my weight daily (now have to type it rather than using the sliding scale), and I don’t appear to be able to have a daily reminder any longer to allow me to jump right to the input screen. As others have mentioned, the history function is now useless, now allowing only a few days of view and forcing you to scroll left to see anything more than a few days earlier. Also have to re-pair all my devices. None of this is life destroying, but aren’t updates supposed to *improve* functionality? They clearly missed that point. Very, VERY disappointed. For those who are smarter than me who hold off updating apps, I strongly recommend you not do this update.

The device seems to consistently read blood pressure accurately (I compare to Dr. office visits monthly). I was able to set up the Bluetooth and pair with my phone easily. This Bluetooth pairing has not been seamless over the life of my OMRON BP monitor, but I have been able to remove the device from my iPhone’s settings as well as the app and then re-pair when syncing stops working. All works properly now, but when it goes awry, delete and re-pair.

The app has recently undergone a major overhaul. The updated app feels a bit bloated and written to track other metrics than blood pressure (steps?, activity, weight, ekg…). Maybe most users have a larger collection of OMRON devices and benefit from this additional functionality, leaving me as an outlier. I find it distracting when I receive “insights” based on a woefully inaccurate number of steps my OMRON app believes I have taken. Not sure where the data is coming from, but it’s not Fitbit.

In summary, a seemingly consistent and accurate blood pressure monitor that may take a small amount of effort to keep paired with your phone. The app works, but is still being developed.

In general I find the new update to be OK. It is different, and that does cause some initial confusion, but I got past most of that in a day or two. I have one observation about the usability of the new app vs previous versions. The graphing function on the new app is headed in the right direction, but the data points are so far apart that I can’t see trends any more, because only two or three data points show up on the screen at a time. I’d prefer to see a week worth of data in portrait orientation and a month worth of data in landscape orientation. Since I export the data to the Apple Health app and its display is exactly what I want, there is no net loss from my perspective, other than a waste of time figuring out that I don’t want to use the graphing feature in the app any more.
I have another comment about how I use the app. My primary interest in this software for it to get the data from my blood pressure meter and feed it to the Apple Health app and infrastructure. I am not interested analyzing the data in the Omron app, or in buying a bunch of additional Omron instruments and using the Omron app as the center of my wellness universe. Everything other than moving blood pressure and heart rate into Apple Health are anti-features in my book.