My household has a saying that anytime we leave for the outside world, we should have “keys, wallet, phone.” It helps remind us of the basics that should be in hand before the door gets locked from the outside. If you’re in California, you can look forward to cutting down the list to two simple items: keys and a phone. A leak reveals that official digital California driver’s licenses and identification cards are coming to Apple Wallet.
The revelation comes from a dormant California Department of Motor Vehicles landing page cited on the official Apple Wallet Wikipedia page, first reported by MacRumors on Monday. California is listed on the Apple Wallet Wikipedia page as an “upcoming state.” There’s a link to the page if you want to see it yourself, but it’s missing essential assets like helper videos and images, which suggests it’s not ready for public consumption.
If you live in California, you can use the official DMV app to store those credentials. However, once this ability goes live, all you’ll need is Apple Wallet. It will make it easier to multitask between the iPhone and the Apple Watch when you need to present it, like in the airport security line or as an encrypted link to a third party. It also cuts down on the eventuality of you leaving it behind in a bar or grocery store.
When Apple announced digital identification cards in 2021, eight states were on board, though only three immediately followed suit. Five states in the U.S. currently offer the embedded version of this helpful feature. Arizona, Maryland, and Colorado were mentioned first when the capability was launched in 2021, though it took until 2022 before it was fully implemented. Georgia later joined the bandwagon in 2023, while the state of Ohio logged on just last week.
California adopting digital licenses and identification cards is good news for getting the ability to roll out to the rest of the country. Sadly, you’ll still have to carry your car keys unless you’re one of the few early-adopting folks with fancy cars embedded with ultra wideband for remote unlocking.
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