At WWDC 2021, Apple announced its plans to bring support for digital IDs in Apple Wallet. Adoption of this feature has been slow and is currently limited to five states, with Ohio being the most recent addition as of last week.
On Monday, 9to5Mac reported that Apple’s home state of California is expected to launch support for digital IDs in Wallet soon. We’ve since also learned that there are two other states piloting the technology: Tennessee and Iowa.
A source tells 9to5Mac that both Iowa and Tennessee are actively developing support for IDs in Apple Wallet. Tennessee reached its agreement with Apple to support the feature last summer, according to a person familiar with the feature’s development. Iowa reached its agreement prior to Tennessee, another source added.
Iowa currently offers its own implementation of a digital ID system, but it doesn’t yet integrate with Apple Wallet. Tennessee is actively developing its own digital IDs program, but it’s not currently available to the public. A report from ABC24 in March said that Tennessee is in the “final steps of finalizing the digital program.”
There’s no timeline on when Iowa and Tennessee will formally launch support for IDs in Apple Wallet. Of course, it is possible that states piloting support for IDs in Apple Wallet ultimately never launch the feature. It’s hard to predict what could happen when dealing with government agencies across multiple states.
But as it stands right now, we expect California, Iowa, and Tennessee to be among the next states to roll out support for IDs in Apple Wallet.
Apple says that ID cards in Wallet can currently be used at select TSA checkpoints within a number of airports around the United States. Digital IDs can also be used at “select businesses and venues,” but your mileage may vary from one business to another.
Most states, including Ohio, still require that people carry their physical driver’s license or identification card, even if they have a mobile ID on their iPhone.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
