New app for Garmin watches estimates your alcohol level

Smartwatches today monitor heart rate, sleep, and stress levels. Now, a new feature is added to their repertoire that will spark debate at many a table: the Alcogram app can estimate approximately how many permille of alcohol is flowing in your blood – and it all runs directly on your wrist.

How Alcogram Arrives at the Estimate

To ensure the result is as close to reality as possible, Alcogram relies on data from your profile – specifically gender, height, age, and body weight. These factors determine how quickly the body metabolizes alcohol, so the same pint of beer will raise the level differently for a sturdy man and a petite woman.

You enter your drinks directly on the watch. You can choose from pre-set beverages or create your own with a specific alcohol content – from beer to a shot of spirits. The app then calculates how much you’ve consumed and incorporates it into the estimate.

The result is shown in a clear graph that plots the estimated alcohol level over time, including its projected development – roughly indicating when the curve should return to zero. A history feature is available, allowing you to look back at previous evenings. Conveniently, the entire app functions directly on the watch, so you don’t need to have your phone with you.

Which watches is Alcogram compatible with?

The app targets a wide range of Garmin smartwatches, including several models from the popular Fenix, Instinct, Forerunner, and Venu series. It can be downloaded for free from the Connect IQ store directly to the watch.

Serves as an Estimate, Not Permission to Drive

It is important to emphasize that the stated values are, of course, only approximate – Alcogram functions similarly to using an online alcohol calculator, for example. The speed at which the body processes alcohol is influenced by many factors that no app can deduce from a profile – what you’ve eaten, how tired you are, what medications you’re taking, or the current state of your liver.

This is doubly true if you drank many hours ago and are unsure if you are sober yet. The app on your watch cannot replace a calibrated breathalyzer or a blood test, and you certainly cannot use it to determine if it’s safe to get behind the wheel. If you have the slightest doubt, it’s better to leave the car – and your bike – parked.

Would you download an app to your watch that monitors how much you’ve had to drink?

Sources: Garmin Connect IQ, Notebookcheck