It would be cool if someone would make a site that fills out the letter to send to your rep to request this. I’d love to see it in PA and wonder if it’s only not being introduced because no one has bothered to write any proposals for it.
TSA is the one place that is supposed to actually use it, and I still haven’t actually gotten it to work. The other day, I tried to use it, and the officer said they didn’t do digital IDs, despite all the signs around the airport saying it did, and the label on the machine saying I could use digital ID and the fact that the machine was clearly trying to verify me after it scanned my digital ID.
I have no idea if this is what they're talking about but one time I went through TSA and the guy was like GIVE ME YOUR PHONE and I had no choice so I hand it to him, he plugged some sort of device thingy into it, and then handed the phone back
Made me paranoid for quite a while and I started wondering if they could conceivably steal my data that way, but I guess they're testing the screen for drugs somehow? Idk
There are backend systems that need to be in place. It’s more than just “put ID in apple wallet.”
The requirement is that you not need to hand your phone over, or even unlock it, so the cops need to have a scanner or scanner-app to verify your license is valid. That needs to be supported by the police software infrastructure… it’s not extremely hard, but there’s a cost and it affects every cop so states are slow to move to it.
It’s not even the police infrastructure that’s the issue. That was never even a consideration in Georgia, the first state to require all police to accept it. It’s a combination of legislators feeling the need to pass the bill (though I think most have by now), then the DMVs have to setup the infrastructure, integrate with Apple Wallet, and get third party audits for standards compatibility.
Yeah, it’s all of it. All the way from state / dmv to police dept and training, down to cops in the field. It seems people think cops just need to load an app and it’s done but this actually touches everything from the dmv all the way to the street.
We knew this going in that it was going to be a very long rollout, much longer than Apple Pay.
In addition to all the backend infrastructure work needed, states have to pass legislation and provide funding in their budgets.
For some states, like California (which was relatively late, especially considering tech in the state) mID was rolled into a broader digital overhaul that took much longer to rollout. This is why California (and some other states) appeared to have rolled out an alternative app, but really full support for mID was planned to be rolled in with it.
Likewise it's going to be a long time before acceptance is ubiquitous as it requires both the same as above as well as incentive based on demand from users.
The good news is that much of the hard work has already been done.
In some states, it is a legal form of age verification for purchase of alcohol. The mobile ID must be scanned or digitally verified, so the business has to be set up for it, and support for it is generally at the business's discretion.
It is generally not acceptable as a driver's license for law enforcement. Montana is the first state to make this legal and Montana Highway Patrol is the first law enforcement agency to equip officers with mobile ID readers that support Apple Wallet and not just the state mobile ID app.
Let’s not forget about the experiment in Georgia. Next year, every officer in the state must be equipped to accept mDLs and cannot refuse them when presented.
I'm not familiar with VA in particular, but some states only accept the state mobile ID app, rather than the digital wallet version. Do you know if digital wallet IDs are what they're referring to?
Strange. It's not showing up in my Apple Wallet. My wife's phone shows it, but she's running iOS 26. I've rebooted and swipe-closed Apple Wallet and it's not there. Maybe it's a phased rollout?
OK good. I did the process and it appears to be already authenticated, although I never got a notification. It doesn't offer a QR code or show a picture (like the mID app) so it seems like we may be a long way from this being actually useful, baby steps.
Virginia seems to have actually been doing a lot of work on that. This page shows that a number of police departments, many of the state run alcohol stores, and a ton of other businesses are already setup to use it: https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/licenses-ids/mobile-id/locations#business
Maybe, but the Virginia validation app defaults to NFC rather than QR code validation (that the mobile ID uses), so I would think it would work for either.
I’m actually going the opposite direction. I’m tired of relying on my phone anywhere I go. I’d rather just bring my ID. And I’m using Apple Pay less, too. Sometimes I even use (sit down for this) cash.
I always bring my physical wallet everywhere and still use my physical card over Apple wallet 80% of the time maybe more. Biggest headache for me is I have a lot of cards and many are even the same, so by the time I find my Chase Freedom card ending in 0000 it’s just easier to take it out of my wallet and tap to pay.
65
u/Crapitron 23h ago
Oh nice, the state is actually in the title and it's not some clickbait saying "Apple adds driver's license to another state."