In a rising variety of states, you possibly can add your ID to Apple Pockets. This is methods to add them, how they work, the place they’re, what the restrictions are, and what they’ll do.
We’re shifting nearer and nearer to a world the place you possibly can ditch your bodily pockets. You’ll be able to already add your bank cards, debit playing cards, loyalty playing cards, tickets and boarding passes, and most just lately — your driver’s license to Apple Pockets.
However the license rollout isn’t all over the place. This has elevated the uncertainty on whether or not or not your ID will be added and if it may be, the place it may be accepted.
This text was final up to date on April 6, 2026.
Easy methods to add your ID to Apple Pockets
Including your driver’s license to Apple Pockets is easy.
- Open the Pockets app in your iPhone
- Faucet the + button within the top-right nook
- Faucet Driver’s License and ID Playing cards
- Stroll by means of the verification course of
The verification course of will embrace methods to make sure you’re the identical one that is including the ID. You may should scan the back and front of your ID in addition to take a sequence of selfies to match your picture on file with the division of motor automobiles in your state.
Apple additionally launched a digital ID primarily based on the U.S. passport in iOS 26. Functionally just like the licenses, it may be used as a type of identification at TSA strains, however it’s not used as an precise passport. It offers a strategy to make the ID with out the individual needing a driving license.
The method is comparable, besides it makes use of your passport.
IDs can solely be added to at least one cellphone at a time. If you’re organising a brand new system earlier than wiping your outdated one, your ID could fail so as to add till the erase is full and the servers catch up.
Which states assist digital IDs
One of many greater issues with digital IDs is the place they’re supported. As every digital ID is managed by the issuing state, each state has to implement its personal program to assist them.
Ohio is one in every of 10 states and provinces that assist digital IDs in Apple Pockets as of mid-2025
As of April 6, 2026, there are 14 states and territories that assist Driver’s licenses in Apple Pockets.
- Arizona
- California
- Colorado
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Illinois
- Iowa
- Maryland
- Montana
- New Mexico
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- West Virginia
- Puerto Rico
Which states will quickly assist digital IDs
Increasingly states are including assist, although. Different states, like Utah, have pledged assist however haven’t applied it but.
As for the place these states planning to assist digital IDs in Apple Pockets are, the listing as of April 6, 2026, consists of:
- Arkansas
- Connecticut
- Kentucky
- Mississippi
- Oklahoma
- Utah
- Virginia
Timelines for the states haven’t been confirmed, however they’ve been introduced as being on board with this system.
To maintain updated, hold a watch right here at AppleInsider, the TSA web site, or Apple’s official listing.
Easy methods to use digital IDs in Apple Pockets
In a great world, a digital ID can be accepted in anywhere your bodily ID is accepted. It isn’t that easy.
TSA is one in every of few that frequently helps digital IDs
The commonest use for these digital licenses is in airports for TSA. Right here in Ohio, we have tried it in any respect the most important airports, together with Columbus John Glenn Worldwide, CAK, and Cleveland Hopkins.
It is really easy to stroll by means of the TSA line, faucet your cellphone to confirm, and hold strolling. After all, for those who fly to a state that does not assist digital IDs, you may nonetheless want your bodily ID for the return journey.
Outdoors of airports, there’s not a lot else you should utilize it for. Locations like bars, liquor shops, physician’s places of work, do not settle for it. There are only a handful of police districts that do, so even for those who stay in a state that it is supported, you continue to want to hold your ID card round.
The free ID verification app can be utilized in Ohio to examine digital IDs, just like the age at a live performance venue
The Ohio BMV gives a free iOS verification app that companies can join and use to confirm any identities with a faucet.
That sounds perfect, however in our expertise, it is vitally restricted. We have discovered just one enterprise that had the app to confirm our age.
A number of the totally different playing cards being saved within the Pockets app
Most retailers nonetheless requested our bodily card to scan the code on the again or swipe it into their legacy level of sale system. That makes it tough and nonetheless mandatory to hold round your bodily license.
Utilizing digital IDs in apps
After all, there are different makes use of for digital IDs somewhat than simply within the bodily world. Your ID can be utilized in apps.
Apps that assist Apple Pockets ID can equally confirm issues like your age or identification. Apple says Clear, MyChart, UberEats, and others shall be including assist, although it would not appear to be any of them have as of August 8, 2025.
It is all about privateness
Probably the greatest elements of digital IDs is the privateness. You solely share very restricted data.
If you give somebody your precise ID, they’ve all of that information displayed there. With a digital ID, you’re solely sharing what you’re required to share.
You explicitly get proven data to be shared, earlier than it’s transmitted
The way it works is that when your ID is requested by both a faucet or an app, a card seems with the knowledge that must be shared. Earlier than you approve the request, the iPhone will explicitly listing what’s being requested for, earlier than you settle for the request.
Some could solely want your identify, whereas others could solely must request your age. That information is then encrypted, transmitted, and by no means saved.
Digital IDs could not attraction to everybody, however adoption has began to extend. Hopefully, we’ll see extra states, police departments, apps, and companies begin supporting it as extra states and customers add it too.
Replace November 18, 2025: Added Illinois to the listing of supported states
Replace April 6, 2026: Added Arkansas, Connecticut, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Utah, and Virginia to the coming-soon listing.
