If you suffer from that recurring nightmare that you’re at the airport but have forgotten your wallet, fret no longer: starting today, holders of U.S. passports can create a Digital ID in Apple’s Wallet app, which can be used at TSA checkpoints across the country for domestic flights—even if you don’t have a REAL ID-compliant state ID card or driver’s license.
First announced at this year’s WWDC, Digital ID is an iOS 26 features and works along the same lines as the various ID and driver’s license systems that Apple Wallet currently offers in 12 states, Puerto Rico, and Japan.
If you hold a U.S. passport, you’ll be able to add a Digital ID by first taking a picture of the machine-readable page in your passport (the one that contains your data and photo), confirming the information by scanning the chip in your passport, and then completing a few steps that help verify that you’re really you, including taking a selfie and then making certain face and head movements.
As with the existing ID cards in Wallet, using Digital ID does not require you to unlock, hand over, or even show your phone to the requesting entity. For example, at a TSA checkpoint, you’ll double click your phone’s side button to bring up Wallet, then hold it over the scanner as you would for an Apple Pay transaction. The phone will tell you what information is being requested and you’ll have to authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID to then provide that information. Once you’ve set up a Digital ID, it will also be available via Wallet on the Apple Watch as well.
Apple, as usual, stresses the security and privacy of this feature. Your information is encrypted on your device and protected with your biometric information (preventing somebody who knows your passcode from presenting or even viewing your ID card), and Apple does not itself know anything about where, when, or what information is presented.
The system is also designed with privacy in mind, so that the least amount of necessary information is provided. For example, if you were to use your Digital ID to verify your age, the only data that would be provided would be your ID picture and a simple “Yes” or “No”. Other information, like your name or birthdate, wouldn’t even be given. That is, in some ways, an advantage over handing over your physical ID card which can not only include those, but other sensitive information like your address.
The Digital ID should be accepted starting today at more than 250 airports in the U.S., though certain specific checkpoints within those airports may not yet have been updated to support mobile IDs. Though Digital ID is based on ISO standards for personal identification and mobile documents, it’s not currently valid for international travel or border-crossing as there is not yet an international standard in place for using mobile IDs for those purposes. However, that’s not to preclude it from happening in the future, should such a standard be adopted.
While air travel is the first place you’ll be able to use your Digital ID, further applications are in the works. Apple provides APIs to allow verification of both identity and age, allowing third parties to implement these features in their apps or on the web. (Many states have already rolled out age-verification apps to work with the mobile ID standard.)
The addition of Digital ID is a clever move. Apple’s been working with states for several years to add mobile IDs and driver’s licenses for several years—the first state, Arizona, rolled out in 2022, and while adoption has been steady, it’s been a slow trickle. Using a federal document allows the company to make an end-run around states dragging their feet, helping drive adoption of the feature and hopefully encouraging lagging states to get onboard.
[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His latest novel, the sci-fi spy thriller The Armageddon Protocol, is out now.]
If you appreciate articles like this one, support us by becoming a Six Colors subscriber. Subscribers get access to an exclusive podcast, members-only stories, and a special community.