Apple Introduces Digital ID, but It Doesn’t Replace Your Passport

I loaded mine the day it was available in my state and I’ve tried to find any opportunity to use it, but there just isn’t one.

In my experience, anyone who won’t just accept your face and word won’t accept some weird thing on your phone either.

Nobody understands what it actually is when you show it to them. Technically it’s in the validated section of Wallet and requires Face ID to verify that it’s really your information being shown.

In practice that is absolutely worthless because absolutely no one knows that, and if they did somehow happen to know it, they aren’t allowed to accept it anyway. If they aren’t in the position to make the judgement call to just take your word for it, they aren’t in the position to accept that, either.

It might be useful for domestic flights but I haven’t tried it and honestly I’m reluctant to do anything when attempting to board a plane that singles me out as in any way unusual or too “clever.”

I believe this is just the chicken (or egg?) of getting everyone on to a national digital ID system, and let me tell you I don’t believe the purpose of that is to make it easier to board a plane…

I just saw on MacRumors that US Passports can now be added as a Digital ID to Apple Wallet for use at TSA checkpoints.

For anybody interested, here are a couple of related Apple Support documents that discuss the setup process, data sharing details, and security:

Two things I learned from Apple’s articles: about the Live Photo function and that the chips in passports are readable by Apple devices.

I’m going to wait a few days before adding my passport—I’m not that interested in beta testing via releases, as is the practice in Silicon Valley these days—but at the moment, the benefits seem to outweigh the disadvantages and risks for me.

I’m trying to understand exactly what the benefits are. Maybe I can use this at a TSA checkpoint if I’ve lost my wallet while I am traveling away from home (domestically), but I’m always going to have my physical license with me otherwise. As I live in the rural suburbs (there are two separate farms on my one-mile long road), anyplace I go will require driving from home unless I hire a limo service.

As for beta testing, I think digital driver licenses and IDs has been a thing on iPhones for a couple of years now.

For me, some of the benefits are related to that I live in an urban area—so I am less reliant on my car than suburban and rural people—and my current driver’s license is not TSA-compliant. I also want to use my passport for Digital ID because my passport number is not permanently assigned while my driver’s license number never changes.

At airports, I usually have digital boarding passes so using a Digital ID means less stuff to juggle at security checkpoints. Finally, if I am outside of the USA and need to replace a lost or stolen passport, perhaps the Digital ID will help embassies and consulates verify my identity more quickly.

I view the passport in Apple Wallet as beta because the capability just launched and the verification process with the federal government is new.

I just added my passport to Wallet. The whole process was simple except I had to take my photos several times before the app accepted them.

I don’t know if I’ll ever have a chance to use it, though, because I don’t like to travel.

Right now only a quarter of all states offer digital DLs through Wallet. This opens up digital ID in Wallet to potentially all Americans, regardless of state.

There is an exactly zero chance I am ever handing my iPhone to a government agent. But, as a backup for a lost wallet, it’s a nice feature.

It doesn’t work like that. You tap a reader, iOS tells you what information is being transferred, and you authenticate (FaceID, TouchID). Then they see your details on their end. Unlike your DL/passport, your iPhone never leaves your hands.

Detailed description is here: Use your Digital ID in Apple Wallet - Apple Support

That’s the benefit.

I’ve been taking my expired passport with me just in case. You’re supposed to be able to use it for identification purposes.

Yeah, this seems like a technology whose time has not yet come. At some point, this will be useful, I’m sure. Most days, I don’t drive (or fly, or buy alcohol, for that matter) and so I can leave my wallet at home. One less thing to worry about. Maybe in five years, that will be almost every day.

I’ve had my virtual driver’s license on my phone for years now and haven’t used it once.

I just like having everything in one place although I’ll be in big trouble if I lose my phone.

But when I pick up one of my prescriptions at Costco, I still have to show them the real driver’s license even though they’ve known me for years. They wouldn’t even accept the photocopy of the license on my phone.

I have both the California Driver’s Licence and new Digital ID on my iPhone. When I loaded them, I tried to also have them load to my Apple Watch 10. I’ve had no success doing that. In Watch Wallet settings, they both show up as items from the phone to be added, but after going through the photo verification, they still claim the need to verify them.

Apple Support provided no direct resolution and recommended the expected next step of unpairing and then re-pairing the Apple Watch and trying again.

Has anyone successfully gotten the Digital IDs on their Apple Watch? Has anyone needed to go through the re-pair cycle to do it? Has anyone gone through the re-pair cycle and still had it not work?

I’ve been digging more into how Digital ID works. Apple says:

Your identity card images are encrypted on device and sent to your government issuing authority, which may share them with their third-party identity verification service provider; Apple does not see or store images of your identity card.

That’s for state-issued identity cards. So far I haven’t found any information about how passports are verified. If a third-party service is used, I’m unlikely to add my passport to Wallet. If a third-party service is used and it is the provider used by the IRS, ID.me, I won’t be using Digital ID.

Why? As somebody interested in startups, small to medium sized companies, venture capital, private equity, and watching distressed companies, I don’t want to trust unregulated third-parties with sensitive identity information if I can avoid it. Bankruptcies, mergers, and cost cutting are almost always bad for privacy and security. And specifically, I think ID.me has shown itself to be untrustworthy.

I’ll join @ace in the TSA queue next time and see if this works (with my CA D/L in my pocket, just in case). Speaking of my driver’s license, I had previously stored it in Wallet, but when I looked for it while creating my Digital ID (not a requirement of the process, I was just curious), it was gone! To be fair, I did get a new phone recently, so perhaps that’s another item that doesn’t survive the migration process. I added it back in, and Apple has now added all the live photo and facial movement steps required by Digital ID to the driver’s license process too (at least for CA).

And regarding the usefulness of having your d/l in Wallet, I actually have used it a couple times. Those requesting my d/l seemed completely baffled by me showing it to them from Wallet (I didn’t have the actual card on my person at the time), but when I showed them all the information on the information screen, they were satisfied. Maybe just lucky, I guess.

My My Number Card is in my Wallet. After reading your article, I opened it up and confirmed it was there and “ready to use” and I could see my photo and ID, etc.

But even after clicking their “i” icon for more information, I have no idea how to make use of the digital My Number card.

I use my physical My Number card regularly. As of late, it has replaced national health insurance cards, so I use it at hospitals and doctors’ office. But I don’t see any way of using my digital My Number card there. I wonder if that is somehow possible.

Just want to add TSA has a 2-year limit on accepting expired IDs:

This is my moment to remind people that you don’t need ID to fly domestically,

Every time I’ve flown I’ve had to produce an ID compliant driver’s license or a passport at TSA.

If you’re flying in a private plane, you only have to satisfy the plane’s owner.

But if you are flying commercially…

No, you’ve produced such ID. If you hadn’t had it, the TSA would have used other methods to identify you. From the TSA:

“Passengers who present a state-issued identification that is not REAL ID compliant at TSA checkpoints and who do not have another acceptable alternative form of ID will be notified of their non-compliance, may be directed to a separate area and may receive additional screening.”

You’ll get extra screening and they’ll ask you questions to verify who you are but people travel all the time without valid ID.

There’s a serious constitutional issue here, which is that the Supreme Court has held the Constitution protects both freedom of assembly and freedom of movement. The TSA has avoided an adverse ruling for them by telling courts when sued that they do not require ID but would do heightened screening instead for someone without ID (most notably in Gilmore v Gonzalez [2007]).

And yet, the Supreme Court doesn’t seem to have a problem with the State of CA requiring me to carry a valid DL whenever I drive on the public roadway. It’s hard to rationalize why you can be required to identify yourself on the public roadway, but that requiring the exact same for public airways/aprons all of a sudden somehow should present a constitutional problem. /OT

And when you fly a plane, you need a pilot’s license. When you’re a passenger in a car or on a plane, you don’t need ID.*

(The constitutional logic is that vehicles like cars and planes present such a potential danger to other people that states & the federal government have the right to reasonably regulate those who operate them).

*I should mention that this applies to US domestic travel.

Except that I don’t need to be the pilot to turn the aircraft into a huge safety hazard for the broader public. Just go ask any New Yorker.

My state DL (New Mexico) also didn’t migrate to my new phone.

The 9/11 terrorists had driver’s (and pilot’s) licenses. Didn’t help stop them, did it?

Umm no, actually none of them had “pilot’s licenses” qualifying them to pilot the two 767s or the two 757s they hijacked. Not even close.

That’s exactly the point. The only thing between people like that and 9/11 is good security screening. And good security screening relies on knowing who’s boarding. Checking government issued photo ID is an efficient and perfectly reasonable manner of implementing that. So yeah, if it’s good enough for driving a 150cc bike in CA, it should be just fine for boarding a 250-ton airliner in DFW. Now while the current SC might think different about that, that shouldn’t deter from reason. Plenty of corrections have been required over the years once reason prevailed. Korematsu v. US is a perhaps lesser known case than the commonly cited Dred Scott v. Sanford to make that point.

In Canada Apple provides no way to add any digital ID to Wallet, not even a U.S. passport.

I loaded my Calif. DL. Never used it and probably never will.

I tried to load my passport, but didn’t work. The photo on my passport isn’t great so maybe that’s the problem. But returning to the US from abroad I haven’t needed my passport. Face scan does it as I have Global Entry.

But I would like to have my passport in Wallet in case I lose or misplace my passport.

Main reason to install these now is to show the usefulness and having a backup. Apple Pay wasn’t very useful a few years ago, but now I only seem to need my credit card in some restaurants. When the US catches up with the rest of the world, that won’t even be necessary. In a few years (decade) something like passports in Wallet will be all we need or maybe the implanted RFID .

I’ve wondered how Apple selects which countries (and which US states) to enable digital ID. In Australia, we have had digital drivers licences and other digital IDs for some time and so it should be easy for Apple to let ours into Apple Wallet.

But a note of caution as some countries will not accept digital drivers licences and other forms of digital ID at their borders. Some car rental companies will not accept digital drivers licences. Best to take hardcopies.

I’d be surprised if Apple wasn’t choosing but instead has offered this capability to whichever legal entity wants to use it. It was announced with State IDs four years ago and it would appear that Apple contacted multiple US states when this was announced.

Android phones also support this - it’s a standard and not proprietary Apple technology.

The problem’s been fixed. I needed to re-pair my Apple Watch to my iPhone. After doing tht, I was able to add the Digital IDs to my Apple Watch.

I loaded my passport onto my iPhone. I tried it at two different TSA checkpoints and it didn’t work. Still not ready for prime time.

Digital driver’s licenses now available in Illinois.

https://news.wttw.com/2025/11/18/illinoisans-can-soon-add-mobile-id-apple-wallet-secretary-state-announces

And the key quote:

A mobile ID does not replace a physical ID or driver’s license, and residents must continue to carry their physical ID or license, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. Giannoulias said motorists must continue to carry a physical driver’s license.

“The legislation that was passed does not allow law enforcement to use it, as of now, which is probably the right thing,” said Giannoulias, who later added that people should consider the mobile ID as “complementary for the time being.”

I’d be interested in hearing more about this, if you care to elaborate. Did it give you an error, or just not do anything at all?

The first time a tried it (Omaha), it appeared to accept it but nothing came through and eventually the agent reset the system and I presented a physical document. At the second airport (Syracuse) it just did nothing. In both cases, the agents told me that the system was live. However, neither of them had actually ever tried it.

OMG! Somebody correctly using complementary instead of complimentary! Be still my heart!

Dave

We have a chicken-and-egg situation with Digital IDs. Without a substantial base of folks with Digital IDs, there’s not much reason for the agencies to invest in appropriate terminals and training; without the ability to use them, there’s not much reason to actually get a Digital ID. It took Apple Pay and other forms of contactless payment years to actually be useful. Now, it’s rare to find a place that accepts credit cards but not contactless payment.

So, if you think a Digital ID may be useful, get one and, at appropriate places, try to use it. That’s a way to encourage the necessary infrastructure to develop.

Of course, the appropriate use of a Digital ID is more complex than a credit transaction. As I understand the process, when you encounter a terminal, you bring up the Digital ID. After it establishes a link to the terminal, your device displays the information that will be shown on the terminal. You then authenticate on your device, and that information and only that information is then shown on the terminal. So, unlike credit card terminals (which are easy even for individuals to obtain), these terminals must be coded and certified to ask for only the information appropriate for the facility where they are installed.

And, you can’t put a substitute device in there to unknowingly take your data - or, at least, it seems that way.
David

Just want to make a semantic comment: airport security and border checkpoints want to see original documents, not print outs or photocopies.

An exception: Brazil has moved to an e-visa system. Once my application was accepted I received an email from the Brazilian embassy with a PDF of the visa, that’s all. I didn’t submit my passport (except a scan) and so of course have no hardcopy visa pasted in it. I was instructed to print the PDF and show it to the passport control in Brazil. I keep the PDF in Apple Notes.

Good point. Digital versions are considered to be copies.

I haven’t been able to set up my digital ID just yet but will do so as soon as I can before my next flight. First of all any occasion where you’re required to take out your ID and present it is also an opportunity to lose it, especially in a packed airport during a busy travel period. Second if you lose your ID or your wallet is stolen, a Digital ID gives you a backup that will get you on a plane (domestically at least) when you may otherwise be grounded. Finally once a large enough number of people start presenting Digital IDs and enough TSA checkpoints support them, it will improve airport security wait times for everyone. Not to mention by setting it up you’re not giving the US government any information about you that they don’t already have if you hold a passport.

As a follow up to my early note, you can fly without an ID for $18:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2025/11/21/tsa-security-fee-wrong-id/

Apparently, the federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wants access to driver’s license data:

I think the bigger point here is not on what works today but rather pushing usage for tomorrow….

The more people add this new Digital ID to their phone now, then the more it’s likely to be accepted more widely and the more likely it’ll expand in usage and acceptance under future governance (eg. law improvements, et al.).

It’s a chicken and egg situation. Similar to how Apple/Google Pay payments have been an agonisingly slow process of rolling out without initially meeting constant blocks and problems, before final large-scale acceptance (while not perfect).

…then maybe, just maybe, people outside the US may get a look-in at having such ID features too (cough, UK/EU).

EDIT: I’d like to know if Apple are working with other non-US countries to encourage them to roll-out similar systems.

Here in the UK the govt have been recently talking about introducing national ID cards to help streamline services, cut fraud, and accurately/quickly check immigration status, et al. (similar to countries like Estonia’s system they’ve have had for years now!), but one has to wonder if they even bother consulting with the major tech firms (Apple/Google/MS/etc.) about implementation, at all?

These processes are depressingly sloooooooooooow in getting done by govts, that it gets beyond a little frustrating still having little plastic cards to carry around, when almost everything else we do can be on our phone.

In that case, I thought tap-to-pay was already well established outside the US - wasn’t it was here in the US where attitudes and infrastructure needed to change?

I think that tap-to-pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, etc., had rapid adaptation. Yes, at first retailers here in the US who accepted it were few, but it wasn’t long before it was almost everywhere. I live in a fairly rural area but even here it’s rare when I need to physically present a credit card. Even restaurants that don’t use terminals carried by the wait staff (rare still in the US) often have a QR code on the bill to allow payment by Apple Pay.

Back to digital ID - I’m still not sure I see the value right now. I think where this will be important will be in regulations that require users be over a particular age to access particular assets on the internet. If a standard is adopted that allows a phone with a digital ID that can assert that the user is over 18 or 16 or 13 (or whatever) without revealing any other personal detail (such as the exact birth date), then a digital ID will be vastly better then scanning a physical ID each time you need to make that assertion. And we have nations and territories that have these regulations either in place already, or will soon have them take effect.

The point with Digital ID’s specifically (i.e. digital versions of physical ones), is that the more users that Apple (and Google) can say to legislators have setup the feature on their devices, the more legislators and govt organisations (and by proxy, private organisations will then typically follow) are going to be more willing and interested in widening their scope of acceptance.

People also actually using (or at least trying to use them!) at the places that accept them, is also important in doing that.

The question of digital online/app proof of age is a related though separate issue. The current state of these here in the UK is ridiculous, as no one is going to add copies of an ID to things like p0rn sites, so the use of VPNs has skyrocketed – most people here who understand think this has been a completely idiotic govt implementation, accordingly.

It’s now official beginning Feb 1 and it’s going to cost $45.

I have a passport, I have a passport card, my drivers license is a Real ID - I still think I’m going to skip adding my passport to the wallet app for now.

I have not tried Apple’s Digital ID yet, but well over two years ago (May of 2022), Maryland was one of a few states (Arizona, too, I think) that let you present your driver’s license as ID on your phone. I did it immediately. It wasn’t just a matter of your scanning your card; you had to go through a digital back-and-forth with the state (took about five minutes) for the installation to finish.

With my driver’s license on my iPhone, I have often gone through TSA checkpoints at BWI airport (Maryland) and now in several other states, including Illinois. I always have my phone at hand anyway for the digital boarding pass, so it’s easy to just tap the end of the phone on the pad in front of the TSA officer’s station and double-click to verify that you give the officer permission to look at the ID. The info pops up on the officer’s screen and you’re done.

I love it. It works great…works fast…when it works.

Maybe 20 percent of the time, the officer says, “Sorry, this one’s not working today. Need to see your physical ID.” Rats. Now I have to dig out my wallet, and although it’s only an extra few seconds, it’s a bit annoying.

I expect that the experience with the Digital ID will be similar.