You can now store your driver’s license on your iPhone – depending on where you live.
Wondering about the iOS 15 driver’s license feature? When Apple previewed iOS 15 earlier this year it announced a particularly cool feature for those hoping to ditch a physical wallet for good: users will be able to scan their driver’s license directly on their iPhone via the Wallet app and save it as a mobile drivers license.
This means that if you have digital keys, digital debit, and credit cards, and store your movie and plane tickets digitally already, you can now effectively free yourself from the physical wallet.
However, the bummer is that countries and states will need to support Apple’s mobile digital driver’s license initiative: Apple can’t just make it so a scanned copy of your driver’s license is accepted as a valid form of ID if you are pulled over or trying to board a plane.
And now Apple has finally announced what states will allow their driver’s licenses to be stored on the iPhone digitally. Sadly, it’s not many.
Which States Support Drivers Licenses On iPhone?
iOS 15 is shaping up to be a pretty nice update for the iPhone. However, the mobile driver’s license feature of the Wallet app in iOS 15 isn’t going to be widely supported initially.
First of all, Apple hasn’t announced any country outside of the United States that will be taking part in the initiative. And even in the US, most of the states aren’t taking part.
Here are the US states that will support iOS 15 drivers license first:
- Arizona
- Georgia
However, Apple says that other states will soon follow. Those states are:
- Connecticut
- Iowa
- Kentucky
- Maryland
- Oklahoma
- Utah
Announcing the initiative, Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s vice president of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, said, “The addition of driver’s licenses and state IDs to Apple Wallet is an important step in our vision of replacing the physical wallet with a secure and easy-to-use mobile wallet. We are excited that the TSA and so many states are already on board to help bring this to life for travelers across the country using only their iPhone and Apple Watch, and we are already in discussions with many more states as we’re working to offer this nationwide in the future.”
However, one thing Apple has not revealed yet is how quickly Arizona and Georgia will add support for mobile drivers’ licenses in iOS 15. It could be the day iOS 15 is released to the public – or it could be at a later date (here’s how you can download iOS 15 now).
Likewise, Apple did not give a date how soon after Arizona and Georgia support is added that the other announced states will add support too.
How To Scan Your Drivers License In iOS 15
When support is added, you’ll be able to scan your driver’s license and save it as a mobile driver’s license in your iPhone pretty easily. It’ll be very similar to the way you add an Apple Pay credit or debit card to the Wallet app now:
- Open the Wallet app on your iPhone.
- Tap the + button.
- You’ll then be asked to scan your physical driver’s license.
After scanning your physical driver’s license, you’ll be asked to take a selfie while moving your head around. The scan of your license and your selfie will be sent to the state’s driver’s license issuer to verify your identity.
After the issuing agency has verified your information, your mobile driver’s license will then automatically appear in the Apple Wallet app on your iPhone.
And check out all the features MISSING from iOS 15.0 at launch! And check out all the new features in iOS 15.4! And take a look at What Is The Red Dot On The Apple Watch?
