California Driver’s Licenses Headed to Apple Wallet
Credit: AppleToggle Dark Mode
Californians using iPhones and Apple Watches will soon be able to add their driver’s licenses and state IDs to the Wallet app on both devices. The news comes as landing pages have been discovered on the California state government DMV website explaining the feature to Californians.
The landing page in question, which admittedly does not yet have a proper website security certificate and contains placeholder images as well as several broken links, reads as follows:
“Now you can add your California driver’s license or state ID to Apple Wallet on iPhone and Apple Watch so you can present it easily and securely in person and in app.”
The landing pages were discovered on Sunday by Jimmy Obomsawin, who went exploring the site after someone on Wednesday added a link to the landing pages in the Apple Wallet Wikipedia entry. The news was shared by MacRumors.
If California does add Apple Wallet compatibility to its digital IDs, it would be the sixth state to add support for digital IDs in the Wallet app. Last month, Ohio became the fifth state to add support, joining the ranks of other states that have been on board for much longer, including Arizona, Maryland, Colorado, and Georgia.
Apple announced digital ID support for Apple Wallet in September 2021, rolling out the enhanced Wallet app in 2022. However, as the Digital ID feature requires states to get on board, the rollout has been slower than Apple (and many drivers) would like. When Apple first announced the feature in 2021, the company said that it was in “discussions with many more states” and was optimistic that the Wallet digital ID feature would be available nationwide in the near future. Several states are reportedly working to add support for driver’s licenses or digital IDs, including Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Utah.
Although the California DMV received permission to start testing mobile driver’s licenses and ID cards in the Wallet app on a limited basis, soon after Apple announced the feature, it was announced in August 2023 that the state would be taking another direction. The West Coast state announced a new mobile driver’s license (mDL) pilot program that would allow iPhone or Android users to store a digital version of their state ID card or driver’s license on their smartphone. However, instead of being stored in the Wallet app, users would be required to download the CA DMV Wallet app, meaning users would have to open that app anytime they wanted to show the ID, not with a quick double tap of the power button.
In July, it was announced that Florida, which had also opted for an in-house app for digital driver’s licenses and digital IDs, would be yanking their “Florida Smart ID” app from both the iOS and Android app stores. This means Florida residents will need to return to using their physical licenses and IDs. The agency quickly removed the app from both the iOS App Store and Google Play Store on Android. The state instructed Florida drivers to delete it from their devices, as the app will no longer function.
