For decades, the ritual has been the same: reach into your back pocket, flip open a wallet, and slide out a laminated card to prove you are who you say you are. But a growing number of American states are now letting residents store their driver’s licenses and state identification cards directly in Apple’s Wallet app on the iPhone and Apple Watch — a shift that could fundamentally reshape how citizens interact with government agencies, airport security, and law enforcement.
As of mid-2025, seven U.S. states have rolled out the ability for residents to add their driver’s license or state ID to Apple Wallet, with more states in various stages of development and pilot testing. The initiative, which Apple first announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference in 2021, has moved from a futuristic concept to a tangible reality — albeit one that is advancing more slowly and unevenly than many technology advocates initially predicted.
The Seven States Leading the Digital ID Charge
According to TechRepublic, the states that currently support driver’s licenses in Apple Wallet include Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Hawaii, Ohio, and Montana. Arizona was the first state to go live with the feature in March 2022, and the others have followed at irregular intervals over the subsequent years. Each state’s rollout has required close collaboration between Apple, the state’s department of motor vehicles or equivalent agency, and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
The process for adding a digital ID to Apple Wallet is relatively straightforward but deliberately secure. Residents must have a compatible iPhone (iPhone 8 or later running iOS 15.4 or newer) or an Apple Watch Series 4 or later. They scan the front and back of their physical driver’s license, take a selfie, and complete a series of facial and head movements to verify their identity. The state’s issuing authority then verifies the submission, a process that can take minutes or, in some cases, several days. Once approved, the digital ID appears in the Wallet app alongside credit cards, boarding passes, and transit cards.
How the Technology Works — And Why Apple Says It’s More Secure Than Plastic
Apple has been emphatic that the digital driver’s license is not merely a photograph of a physical card stored on a phone. The company uses a framework built on the ISO 18013-5 standard for mobile driver’s licenses (mDL), which means the credential is cryptographically signed by the issuing state authority and stored in the iPhone’s Secure Element — the same tamper-resistant hardware chip that protects Apple Pay transactions. When a user presents their digital ID at a TSA checkpoint, for example, the information is shared via NFC (Near Field Communication) and only the specific data fields requested by the verifier are transmitted. A TSA agent checking age and identity at an airport does not need — and does not receive — the holder’s home address or organ donor status.
This selective disclosure model is one of the key privacy advantages Apple has touted. “You don’t hand your entire identity over every time someone asks to see your ID,” the company has noted in its developer documentation. Biometric authentication via Face ID or Touch ID is required before any information is shared, adding another layer of protection. If an iPhone is lost or stolen, the owner can remotely wipe the device — and the digital ID with it — using Find My iPhone, a capability that a physical card obviously lacks.
TSA Adoption Is the Proving Ground
The most visible real-world application of digital IDs in Apple Wallet has been at airport security checkpoints. The TSA has been expanding the number of airports that accept mobile driver’s licenses, and as of early 2025, the agency supports the technology at more than 30 airports nationwide. At participating checkpoints, travelers tap their iPhone or Apple Watch on an identity reader, authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID, review the information being requested on their device screen, and authorize the transmission — all without handing their phone to a TSA officer.
The experience is designed to be contactless and privacy-preserving. The TSA has said that it does not store the biometric or identity data transmitted during the verification process. However, the agency’s broader push toward facial recognition and digital identity verification at airports has drawn scrutiny from civil liberties organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which have raised questions about the potential for mission creep and surveillance expansion as digital ID infrastructure matures.
Beyond the Airport: The Slow March Toward Ubiquity
While TSA checkpoints have served as the primary proving ground, the ultimate vision for digital IDs extends far beyond air travel. Proponents envision a future where a digital driver’s license is accepted at bars and restaurants for age verification, at pharmacies for picking up prescriptions, at hotels for check-in, during traffic stops by law enforcement, and for online identity verification in government and financial services. Some states have already begun exploring or enabling select use cases beyond the airport.
Colorado, for instance, has been among the more aggressive states in expanding where digital IDs can be used. The state’s myColorado app, which predates the Apple Wallet integration, has been accepted at select businesses and state agencies for several years. The integration with Apple Wallet adds a layer of convenience by allowing residents to use the same app ecosystem they already rely on for payments and boarding passes, rather than downloading a separate state-specific application.
The Fragmentation Problem and the Android Question
One of the most significant challenges facing the digital ID movement is fragmentation. Each state must independently decide to support the technology, negotiate agreements with Apple (and potentially Google for Android devices), update its technical infrastructure, and pass any necessary legislation or regulatory changes. This state-by-state approach means that a resident of Arizona with a digital ID in Apple Wallet cannot necessarily use it when visiting a state that hasn’t adopted the technology — or even at businesses within their own state that haven’t invested in compatible readers.
Google has been pursuing a parallel effort with Google Wallet on Android devices, and several states that support Apple Wallet digital IDs also support the Android equivalent. However, the rollout has been similarly uneven. The lack of a unified federal standard or mandate for mobile driver’s licenses has meant that progress depends heavily on the priorities and budgets of individual state agencies. The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) has been working to develop interoperability standards, but full nationwide adoption remains years away by most estimates.
Privacy Advocates Sound a Cautious Note
Not everyone is enthusiastic about the digitization of government-issued identification. Privacy advocates have raised several concerns. First, there is the question of what happens during a law enforcement encounter. If a police officer asks to see a digital ID on a phone, does that create an opportunity — or a legal pretext — to access other data on the device? Apple has designed the system so that the phone remains locked and only the ID information is transmitted via NFC, but legal frameworks governing digital ID presentation during traffic stops are still evolving and vary by jurisdiction.
Second, there is the issue of digital equity. Not everyone owns a recent-model iPhone or has reliable access to the internet connectivity required to set up and maintain a digital ID. Requiring or even strongly incentivizing digital identification could disadvantage lower-income residents, older adults, and others who are less likely to own compatible devices. Every state that has implemented digital IDs has been careful to emphasize that the physical card remains valid and that the digital version is an optional supplement, not a replacement. But critics worry that as digital IDs become more prevalent, the practical advantages they confer could create a two-tier system.
What Comes Next: More States, More Use Cases, and a Federal Dimension
Apple has indicated that it is in discussions with additional states to bring digital IDs to Apple Wallet, though the company has not publicly disclosed a comprehensive timeline. Industry observers expect that the pace of adoption will accelerate as more states observe the experiences of early adopters and as the technical and legal frameworks become more standardized. The REAL ID enforcement deadline, which the federal government has repeatedly postponed, could also serve as a catalyst: as states upgrade their identification infrastructure to comply with REAL ID requirements, integrating digital ID capabilities becomes a more natural — and potentially cost-effective — addition.
At the federal level, there has been growing bipartisan interest in digital identity solutions, driven in part by concerns about identity fraud, which costs the U.S. economy tens of billions of dollars annually. The push for digital IDs intersects with broader debates about online identity verification, particularly in the context of financial services, healthcare, and government benefits administration. Whether a patchwork of state-level mobile driver’s licenses eventually coalesces into something resembling a national digital identity framework remains one of the most consequential open questions in American technology policy.
For now, the seven states that have embraced Apple Wallet digital IDs represent a vanguard — early movers in a transformation that, if it reaches critical mass, could make the physical wallet as obsolete as the Rolodex. But as with any technology that touches on identity, privacy, and civil liberties, the path from pilot program to universal adoption will be shaped as much by policy choices and public trust as by the elegance of the underlying technology.
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