From Southwest to United, most airways mean you can journey with a digital copy of your boarding go. And now, some states permit residents to scan airport safety with a digital copy of their driver’s license, too. As a substitute of reaching on your bag, all you must do is put Apple Pockets in your telephone Iphone or Apple Watch.
“Including driver’s licenses and nation IDs to Apple Pockets is a crucial step in our imaginative and prescient to exchange the bodily pockets with a safe, easy-to-use cell pockets,” stated Jennifer Bailey, vice chairman of Apple Pay and Apple Pockets. In a 2021 assertion.
It hasn’t fully modified the scenario globally but: whereas 12 states have dedicated to digital identities, solely three have begun to formally settle for them. And whereas the airport you are departing from could settle for a go in your Apple Watch, the service will not be prolonged with the identical courtesy in your return flight.
Learn extra: The Division of Homeland Safety is suspending the deadline for acquiring actual identification at airports
The Transportation Safety Administration already helps the expertise at particular airport safety checkpoints. So it is actually a query of when, not if, that possibility will change into a nationwide normal.
This is what you could learn about placing your driver’s license in your Apple Pockets, together with the way to do it and which nations acknowledge digital IDs. For extra on journey, try The eleven issues that must be on everybody’s journey guidelines And The distinction between TSA PreCheck and International Entry.
How do I add my driver’s license to my Apple Pockets?

So as to add an ID to your Apple Pockets, faucet the “plus” button on the prime of the display.
Dan Avery/CNET
Apple constructed the expertise to add your ID to your Apple Pockets iOS 15 for iPhone. The method is just like including a brand new bank card.
First, faucet the “plus” button on the prime of the display in Pockets. (When you have an Apple Watch paired together with your iPhone, it should ask you so as to add your license there as properly.)
You will then scan your bodily driver’s license together with your iPhone’s digicam and take a selfie, “which might be securely offered to a state of difficulty for verification,” in keeping with Apple.
Additionally, you will be required to finish a sequence of facial and head actions as an “additional safety step”.
As soon as your id is verified by the issuing nation, will probably be added to your pockets.
To have the ability to add your license or ID to Apple PocketsIt should be issued by a taking part nation. As well as, you have to:
- iPhone 8 or later, or Apple Watch Sequence 4 or later, with The newest model of iOS or WatchOS
- Face ID or Contact ID is turned on
- An Apple ID with two-factor authentication turned on
- Your machine area is about to United States

Proper now, solely residents of Arizona, Colorado, and Maryland can add their licenses.
Dan Avery/CNET
Additionally, passengers solely with TSA pre-screening On boarding go eligible for flash digital passes, In keeping with the TSA web sitealthough the company stated it plans so as to add an possibility for different passengers sooner or later.
Just one license or ID will be added to your iPhone and paired together with your Apple Watch at a time.
What airports settle for digital ID?
Apple initially introduced it in 2021 these eight nations They have been taking part in this system, then raised the quantity to 12 this yr.
However these are states dedicated To simply accept Apple Pockets IDs, you do not at present.
Proper now, solely Arizona, Colorado, and Maryland assist digital identification—and solely at choose safety checkpoints at these airports:
- Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport
- Baltimore/Washington Thurgood Marshall Worldwide Airport
- Ronald Reagan Washington Nationwide Airport
Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma and Utah have agreed to assist the initiative, as has Puerto Rico, although no particular timelines have been introduced.
Different nations are anticipated to affix this record: Bailey stated final yr that Apple is “already in discussions with many different nations”.
And in November, the South Carolina Division of Motor Autos stated it was “exploring” the choice of a digital ID.
“There’s a requirement that I created a research committee on the concept and they’re nonetheless being researched,” spokeswoman Maranda Williams stated. he stated to the stateColumbia, South Carolina information outlet.
Other than Apple’s efforts, some states permit residents to add their driver’s licenses to their telephones by way of state-run apps, akin to LA Portfolio in Louisiana. However these are for driving and age verification functions and aren’t but accepted by the TSA.

an Apple
How do I exploit an authorization saved in my Apple Pockets on the TSA?
To current your digital ID, faucet your iPhone or Apple Watch on the ID reader on the safety checkpoint.
You’ll then be requested to authenticate your id utilizing Face ID or Contact ID.
If profitable, a checkmark ought to seem on the display.
In keeping with AppleYou need not unlock, present or hand your machine [to a TSA agent]. ”
Is that this expertise secure?
In keeping with Apple, it’s.
The corporate says the software program makes use of the identical privateness and security measures already within the iPhone and Apple Watch to forestall tampering and theft.
The assertion reads “Your driver’s license or state ID information is encrypted” on the Apple Help website. “Neither a state issuing authority nor Apple can inform when or the place you employ your license or ID, and biometric authentication with Face ID and Contact ID helps be sure that solely you’ll be able to view and use your license or ID.”
The TSA has additionally licensed digital IDs.
“Digital id has the potential to reinforce airport safety and improve the passenger expertise by decreasing contact factors, offering higher privateness, and extra correct id verification,” the company stated in an announcement.
My state accepts digital IDs. Do I nonetheless want my bodily license on the airport?
sure. This system remains to be in its infancy, and there is no assure that the checkpoint you employ to just accept a driver’s license might be arrange in your Apple Pockets.
In keeping with the Transportation Safety Administration’s web site, “All passengers should proceed to have their bodily driver’s license available.” “This TSA officer could ask for a bodily ID along with a digital ID.”
The place else can I exploit my digital ID?
with the Introducing iOS 16 Apple stated that in June, apps that require age or id verification ought to be capable of settle for ID playing cards saved in your Apple Pockets app. Uber Eats and car-sharing service Turo have been cited as apps that may present this performance, In keeping with MacRumorshowever neither of them formally did so.
Apple added that retailers, eating places and different locations will make the most of this characteristic sooner or later.
Digital IDs aren’t at present accepted by the police or motorized vehicle departments.
I’ve an Android telephone. Can I add my id to Google Pockets?
in December 2022 system replaceGoogle introduced that it was a beta take a look at that will permit Android telephone customers to add their driver’s licenses to Google Pockets “for handy, non-public, and safe viewing.”
Google stated the characteristic might be obtainable in “choose US states,” and it did not point out which of them or when.