This has the potential to be pretty cool… I think?
State IDs are soon coming to Apple Wallets
During Apple’s annual developer conference, some cool innovations were announced, especially as it impacts the Apple Wallet feature. If you’re a frequent traveler, odds are that you’ve used Apple Wallet for everything from airline mobile boarding passes to hotel elite cards.
Apple is now working on integrating government issued identification into Apple Wallet. With this, iPhone users will be able to scan their state IDs and driver’s licenses into the digital wallet. This feature is expected to roll out this fall, when iOS 15 debuts.
Of course it’s one thing to be able to scan your ID onto your smartphone, but it’s a whole different matter to have that counted as valid for situations where you need identification. Apple is expecting that “participating” states will permit this to be a valid form of identification. Furthermore, Apple is working with the Transportation Security Administration to enable the ability to use a digital ID at airport checkpoints.
Could this slow down the screening process?
In general I love the concept of being able to store my state ID digitally:
- It’s nice not to have to worry about taking your physical ID with you everywhere
- There’s always the risk of losing your physical ID, so being able to store it on your phone mitigates that risk
- While I can appreciate why some people might have security concerns, personally I don’t, because, well, so many companies already have so much information about me, and worrying about that seems like a lost cause
That being said, am I the only one who wonders if at some point this will slow down the airport experience? If passengers have both their boarding pass and state ID stored in Apple Wallet, I feel like it will potentially add several seconds to the screening process. While that might not sound bad on an individual level, when you multiply it by the number of people being screened, it seems like it could add up.
Then there’s the other issue of this only being valid in select states, so this will definitely create some confusion in states where it isn’t accepted.
Then again, it’ll be nice not to have to find a place to store your ID after your ID has been checked and before you go through the screening checkpoint, so there is that advantage.
Bottom line
Starting later this year it should be possible to store select state IDs in your Apple Wallet, meaning you’ll have a government-issued digital ID. This is an exciting innovation in general, though perhaps most exciting is that you could use this to clear TSA checkpoints, as Apple is working with the TSA to implement this.
It sure would be nice to be able to clear security checkpoints without having to take an ID out of your (physical) wallet, though I do wonder if this will slow things down.
What do you make of the prospect of using an Apple Wallet-stored ID to clear TSA checkpoints? Would you use it?
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