14 DAY TRIAL // The world is slowly but surely moving to a new era where the traditional driver’s license and ID are long gone, and this week, it’s the turn of Colorado to go full digital on this front.
The state has just announced that it’s now accepting digital driver’s licenses and IDs stored in the Wallet app, so they are available on both the iPhone and the Apple Watch.
Colorado is the third U.S. state to support Apple’s push for digital documents, after Arizona and Maryland. Of course, we’re still very far away from the moment the entire world can leave traditional documents at home, but the good news is that the transition makes good progress.
Colorado authorities emphasize that enrolled a driver’s license or ID on Apple devices is a completely voluntary process.
“Colorado ID on iPhone and Apple Watch is a voluntary, secure, digitized version of your Colorado-issued driver license (DL) or identification card (ID) available in the Apple Wallet app on your iPhone and Apple Watch. Driver license and state-issued identity cards (IDs) which are stored directly in Apple Wallet on iPhone provide an easy, private, and secure way for Coloradans to present their state-issued ID at select Transportation Security Administration (TSA) airport security checkpoints, within Denver International Airport (DIA) and other participating locations,” state officials explain.
“Additionally, the Colorado ID on iPhone and Apple Watch offers security and privacy benefits because Coloradans get to review the personal information they share with others and use biometric authentication with Face ID or Touch ID to authorize it.”
At this point, it’s probably just a matter of time until more states join Apple’s push, so fingers crossed for the whole thing to happen sooner rather than later.