Early 23andMe customers haven't been getting updated reports, while more recent customers have been getting regular updates, Wired reports. That, it adds, is largely due to changes the company has made in what genotyping chips it uses.
The newer chips 23andMe has been using from Illumina include both more and different variants than the older ones, it notes, which has allowed the company to be more efficient and analyze more complex variants. The newer chips have also enabled it to return more health data. But that, Wired notes, means that users who were tested using older arrays can't get the same data back.
23andMe said that saliva samples from older customers would be re-run on the newer arrays, but Wired reports that the company recently said that those customers would have to send in new samples and pay a fee, though discounted, to be re-analyzed.
Wired notes that this serves as a reminder that "such tests are consumer products and, like phones and laptops, they're constantly evolving."