California will quickly begin rolling out assist for digital driver’s licenses and IDs within the Apple Pockets app on iPhone and Apple Watch, changing into the sixth state to implement the characteristic.
Pockets app integration is a part of California’s cellular driver’s license effort, which kicked off a 12 months in the past. Greater than 500,000 individuals have already added a driver’s license or ID to the California DMV Pockets app, the place California examined the choice earlier than rolling it out to the Pockets app.
IDs and licenses saved within the Pockets app on iPhone or iPad can be utilized for TSA screenings at choose airports and for age verification at choose shops. Proper now, California’s cellular pockets assist remains to be in a pilot stage, and only one.5 million members are ready to enroll.
California requires individuals to proceed to hold a bodily license or ID card as a result of the digital license isn’t accepted by legislation enforcement, state authorities companies, and most companies.
Proof that Apple Pockets integration was coming to California first surfaced earlier in August when a hidden touchdown web page on the DMV web site was found, however California Governor Gavin Newsom is formally asserting the characteristic at this time, in response to Axios. Help will probably be rolling out “in the coming weeks.”
Apple introduced a brand new Pockets app that supported digital IDs again in 2022, however states have been sluggish to undertake the characteristic. Thus far, solely Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, and Ohio have carried out assist. Apple stated in 2022 that Connecticut, Iowa, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Utah are additionally engaged on assist.