An Interview with Glance creator Ryan Mason!

For anyone who has a fitbit watch and wants to see their blood sugars on the face, there is an amazing watch face out there called ‘Glance‘.

Name​: Ryan Mason

Diabetaversary​:March 7, 2007

Are you on an insulin pump? I am. I use a tandem T-slim with control IQ.

What’s your go to when you’re low? My go to is to use sugar tabs which are 4 carbs a tab. This makes it easier to control the low and not go too high.

Do you have a fear of needles?! I did when I was first diagnosed, but with lots of practice, I learned how to handle it. I was also 13 at the time, so that might have had something to do with it.

If you could have anything and not have to inject, what would it be? I really don’t drink juice that much anymore as I always have trouble covering it. So I would say juice. Orange juice, grape juice, any juice.

What’s your favorite type of cake? I love chocolate cake, especially the Wegmans ultimate chocolate cake.

Ryan’s story – how I made Glance.

I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at age 13 and that day has never left my memory. I remember the days and months leading up to it, how I always had to go to the bathroom. I could not quench my thirst, I was always tired, and I always had to pee. I just wasn’t myself. I went to the hospital and had my blood sugar tested. I was 404 mg/dl. 404 error, my pancreas was not found (techy joke).

I didn’t know what that meant at the time or the consequences of being diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes would have on my life, but I could tell by the expression in the room that this was serious. Later that day, my parents and I went to a larger hospital that could help us get a footing on this and start to understand how I could manage this beast.

Fast forward through high school, and all the hormones associated with puberty and diabetes. With the help of my parents and others, I was able to control my blood sugar and keep a good A1C. It was in college where I first heard about the DIY diabetes community. I was immediately drawn to the creativity and support that this community provided, and their slogan was “All we ask is that you pay it forward because #wearenotwaiting.” This really resonated with me, but at the time, I was unable to do much. I was just there to learn.

Glance’s journey started here, even though I didn’t know it yet. I started to learn about wearable tech and what was out there. I ended up setting up a Pebble and the Skyline watch face that let me see my BG on my wrist. It was a start, and it was very helpful. It didn’t last too long though because of issues with hardware, so I shelved the idea for a few years and finished up college. Then the day came where Pebble shut down and was bought out by Fitbit. I was so excited to hear about Fitbit acquiring Pebble and the developer SDK they were making. I immediately remembered what I had shelved all those years ago and knew I wanted to try my hand at “paying it forward.” This is when the first line of code was written for Glance.

The first iteration of Glance was called “API-Watchface” and looked like this.

I even still have this code available on Github

https://github.com/Rytiggy/api-watchface

After some time and a lot of development, Glance started to take place and started to resemble the app that people use today. This was when Glance got its name. I was laying in bed looking at what I made and lifted my arm to get a glance at my readings… yep, Glance. Glance was official now.

The next day I created the new repo that has the current codebase. https://github.com/Rytiggy/glance

I have been iterating on Glance ever since, and it has evolved a lot over the years. This is what Glance looks like today:

I made Glance to help others and to help pay it forward to all the people who have helped me get this far. I would not have been able to create Glance without the help of others, and I am beyond thankful for those people. Glance has been in development since 2017, has over 2,002,040 lines of code, and has a community around it that embodies the same slogan as the CGM in the cloud community does: pay it forward.