The Wallet of the Future Is in Your Pocket: Why Your APPLE Wallet Could Soon Be the One ID Ever

If there has ever been a time when the phrase ‘there’s an app for that’ has rung truer, it’s now. Steps toward a cashless, mobile future continue to accelerate, propelling us into a world in which large wallets stuffed full of plastic and folding money will seem anachronistic and quaint. APPLE has once again placed itself at the leading edge by adding the ability to display your driver’s licence in APPLE Wallet.

The Digital Leap: Overview of APPLE's Wallet Evolution

APPLE has always been known for pioneering ideas that seamlessly combine technology and lifestyle: APPLE Pay eliminated the need to carry plastic credit cards or cash. Transactions were made securely, simply and seamlessly. The latest step in APPLE’s journey toward your iPhone replacing your wallet altogether is a new feature: putting your driver’s licence or state ID alongside your plane ticket and Walmart gift card inside the APPLE Wallet.

APPLE's Digital ID: States in the Vanguard

The path to digital identification documents, however, is still fairly early on. So far, APPLE has invited residents from Arizona, Colorado, Georgia and Maryland to add their driver’s licences or state IDs to APPLE Wallet. These states are forging ahead, adopting what promises to be a convenient but also more secure tool for verifying identity.

How You Can Transform Your iPhone into Your ID

The specifics are easy: enter your DMV website, start the process, and have your APPLE Wallet loaded in under five minutes. Long known for their ease of use, APPLE products demand that even the most complicated tasks be solved with the minimum number of clicks or swipes, such as adding a driver’s licence to your APPLE Wallet. You need to have your physical ID, and you need to be able to capture it with your phone’s camera. You launch the process in your Wallet app with a tap. You go through four quick steps, one of which has you set up Face ID for an unexpectedly futuristic further step in verifying your identity.

Navigating the Hurdles and Possibilities

This limited but meaningful use case is already in play; in Colorado, where the digital ID is in a pilot programme, use at TSA checkpoints is easier. This is a promising start to the ability to use digital IDs more widely. But it also demonstrates what APPLE is showing in its model of Wallet expansion: if they develop and roll out a new functionality step by step, not incrementally but still thoughtfully and carefully, the results can be impressive.

New York's Digital ID Endeavor

The APPLE Wallet isn’t the only effort at digital identification, nor is it the only one promoted by states already on board. The New York Mobile ID shows how eager other jurisdictions are to leap onto the digital stage even for something as fundamental as a driver’s licence. It’s not yet part of the APPLE Wallet, but New York’s effort is an example of the parallel attempt to build a future in which your phone is your proof and your identity.

The Path Forward

The Wallet app by APPLE became the ideal repository for your digital ID because it’s the biggest, most reliable platform that holds your picture, your birth date, and all your other credentials, making the prospect of a wallet-free, mobile-only life not a question of if but when. As more states look to join the digital ID programme, and as technology overcomes security and privacy hurdles, the wallet-free life becomes less a question of when and more a question of how soon.

About APPLE's Revolution

As long as APPLE keeps building and pushing the way it has been, we can keep imagining a tech-aided, simplified, efficient and safe existence in the years to come.