What Is a Mobile Driver's License? Wallet ID and Which States Allow It

A mobile driver's license is not a picture of your ID sitting in your phone's photo library — it's a separate, cryptographically signed credential that your state's motor vehicle agency issues directly to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, built on the same ISO/IEC 18013-5 international standard that airports and retailers are adopting worldwide. Apple's and Google's own support pages confirm it works nothing like a screenshot: the license data is encrypted on the device, tied to Face ID, Touch ID, or your phone's lock screen, and shared field-by-field only after you approve each request — so a store clerk checking your age sees your birth date and photo, not your address or license number. As of late 2026, mobile driver's licenses or state IDs can be added to Apple Wallet in 17 US states and territories and to Google Wallet in 13, with the Transportation Security Administration now accepting digital ID at more than 250 airport checkpoints. Here's what the credential actually is, how to set it up, where it works, and what the privacy model really protects.

What is a mobile driver's license (mDL)?

A mobile driver's license, or mDL, is a digital credential issued by a state's department of motor vehicles that lives inside a phone's secure hardware rather than in a wallet. It is built on ISO/IEC 18013-5, an international standard first published in 2021 that defines how an mDL talks to a reader device over Bluetooth Low Energy, NFC, or a QR code, and how that reader can confirm the credential is genuine and hasn't been tampered with. The standard also allows a verifier to request only specific data elements — for example, just an "over 21" flag instead of a full birth date — which is the technical basis for the privacy claims both Apple and Google make.

Crucially, an mDL is issued by the state, not by Apple or Google. When you add a license to either wallet, the request goes to your state's motor vehicle agency, which decides whether to approve it. Apple's support documentation is explicit that "the issuing authority, not Apple, approves or denies your request to add your license or ID," and the same approval step applies on the Google Wallet side.

How Apple Wallet ID cards work

Apple Wallet's driver's license and state ID feature requires an iPhone 8 or later on the latest iOS, or an Apple Watch Series 4 or later on the latest watchOS, with Face ID or Touch ID enabled and the device region set to United States. According to Apple's support pages, setup works like this:

1. Open Wallet, tap Add Card, then choose Driver's License or ID Cards and select your state.
2. Choose whether to add the license to iPhone only or to both iPhone and a paired Apple Watch.
3. Scan the front and back of your physical license in good lighting.
4. Confirm your identity with a Live Photo or selfie, following on-screen prompts to turn or move your head so the system can check for spoofing.
5. Authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID to send the request to your state's issuing authority.
6. Wait for approval — the state, not Apple, makes the call, and may ask for more information.

Apple's privacy and security documentation lays out exactly what moves where during that process. The issuing authority receives the scanned images of the card, the results of the facial/head-movement analysis (not the raw video), the data encoded in the license's barcode, and a single-digit fraud-prevention score derived from how the device is normally used. Apple itself briefly handles a subset of that data — name, address, and date of birth from the barcode, plus the selfie and movement video — but deletes it shortly after the request is sent or the state approves/denies it. Once the license is added, Face ID or Touch ID authentication happens entirely on the device; it is never sent to Apple or to the state.

How Google Wallet digital ID works

Google Wallet's digital ID, available only on Android, supports two credential types: a driver's license or state ID issued by a participating state, and a separate "ID pass" that any US passport holder can create regardless of which state they live in. Google's own digital ID page describes the credential as encrypted and "built into your phone's security," usable only after you authenticate on the device, with the ability to review exactly what information a request is asking for before you share anything. As with Apple, a lost or stolen phone can have its digital ID wiped remotely as part of a standard device erase, and the credential itself is issued and controlled by the state DMV rather than by Google.

Setup follows a similar pattern to Apple's: you scan both sides of your physical card, record a short verification video, and submit the request to your state for approval before the credential becomes usable in the app.

Which states support Apple Wallet and Google Wallet ID?

Coverage has expanded steadily since Arizona became the first state to support Apple Wallet IDs in March 2022, but it is still far from nationwide, and the two platforms' lists don't fully overlap. Always check the issuer-specific list before assuming your state is covered — Apple and Google each publish and update their own.

New York, Louisiana, and Utah have been named in TSA's own expansion announcements as checkpoint-accepted states, but typically through a state-specific app rather than Apple or Google Wallet directly — a reminder that "digital ID" is a broader category than just these two platforms. Both companies also keep a current, authoritative state list on their own sites, which is the one to trust over any third-party roundup, including this one, since the roster changes every few months.

How to add your license or state ID

On iPhone, go to the Wallet app, tap the plus button, choose Driver's License or ID Cards, pick your issuing state, and follow the scan-and-selfie flow described above. A license can only live on one iPhone and one paired Apple Watch per Apple Account at a time; moving to a new iPhone means re-adding it through Setup Assistant or the Wallet app. On Android, open Google Wallet, look for the option to add an ID or driver's license (where your state supports it), and follow the equivalent scan-and-video verification steps before submitting the request to your DMV. In both cases, approval isn't instant — it depends on your state processing the request, and can take anywhere from minutes to a few days.

Using digital ID at TSA checkpoints

TSA's own Digital ID page says the credential now works at more than 250 US airports through Apple Wallet, Google Wallet, Samsung Wallet, or a state-issued app, and that using it is entirely optional — travelers can still present a physical ID or passport instead. At a checkpoint's CAT-2 identity unit, you tap your phone against the reader or scan a QR code; the unit then takes your photo and compares it with the image embedded in the credential. TSA states that it sees only the information needed to verify identity, that it receives digital ID data only at the checkpoint and only with the traveler's consent, and that the photo and personal data are deleted after the verification is complete — they are not retained for law enforcement or shared with other entities, except in limited, disclosed testing of the facial-comparison technology itself.

One rule hasn't changed: TSA says "all passengers must still carry an acceptable, compliant physical ID for verification," since digital ID isn't a universal replacement yet, and not every checkpoint or airline counter has the reader hardware installed.

Retail, app, and age-verification use

Outside the airport, Apple describes its ID cards as usable at "select businesses and organizations," in person, in apps, and online, while Google's digital ID is pitched the same way for Android. The practical use case that comes up most is age verification — proving you're over 21 at a liquor store, or over 18 inside an app — without handing over your full license. Because the underlying mDL standard supports sharing a single attribute like an age threshold instead of your full birth date and address, a retailer's scanner can, in principle, confirm you're old enough without learning your home address or license number at all. How much of that selective-disclosure capability any given store or app actually uses depends on their own verification software; Apple's and Google's documentation don't guarantee every merchant implements it that way. Apple's own age-verification tooling for apps and app stores works on a related but distinct set of APIs, covered in more detail in this breakdown of how Apple and Google handle app store age checks.

Is it secure? The "just a photo" myth, debunked

The most common misconception is that a digital ID is just a snapshot of your physical card stored in an app — easy to screenshot, copy, or fake. Apple's and Google's own documentation describes something considerably more locked down:

• It's a signed credential, not an image. The data is issued and digitally signed by your state under the ISO/IEC 18013-5 standard, so a reader can cryptographically verify it came from the DMV and hasn't been altered.
• You can't screenshot it. Apple's support documentation notes that the license information screen in Wallet blocks screenshots outright.
• Biometric gating happens on-device. Face ID, Touch ID, or your phone's own authentication is required to view or present the credential, and that check is processed locally — it is never transmitted to Apple, Google, or the issuing state.
• Selective disclosure. Apple says you can review exactly what a verifier is requesting, who is asking, and whether the data will be retained, before you approve sharing anything. Google makes the same claim for its own Wallet.
• No tracking by the platform. Apple states plainly that "neither the issuing authority nor Apple can see when and where you use your license or ID" — presentation history is stored only on your own device.

None of this makes a phone un-loseable, which is why both companies also build in device-level protections: Apple ties the credential to the Face ID/Touch ID that was active when it was added, and Google notes that a remote wipe of a lost or stolen Android phone removes the digital ID along with everything else.

What a mobile driver's license can't do (yet)

Despite the standardization effort, there are real limits worth knowing before you rely on one:

• It doesn't replace your physical card. TSA, Apple, and Google all say explicitly that you should keep carrying your plastic license — law enforcement and many businesses are not required to accept the digital version.
• Coverage is state-by-state and platform-specific. A state supporting Apple Wallet doesn't guarantee Google Wallet support, or vice versa — check the table above, then confirm on each company's current list.
• It's US-only, for now. Both Apple's and Google's driver's license/state ID features are limited to US-issued credentials and US-region devices; separate digital ID programs exist in other countries but aren't part of this feature.
• Apple's "Digital ID" from a passport isn't a REAL ID. Apple's documentation notes that a passport-derived Digital ID always carries a "DHS Compliance: true" flag for TSA purposes, but that flag doesn't make it a REAL ID-compliant document in the legal sense.

What's next

Expect the state list to keep growing on both platforms through 2027, following the same roughly one-state-every-few-months cadence seen since Arizona's 2022 launch, with more TSA checkpoints gaining CAT-2 readers in the meantime. The bigger open question is retail and age-verification adoption outside airports: the cryptographic plumbing for selective disclosure already exists in the ISO 18013-5 standard, but how many bars, liquor stores, and apps actually build readers for it — rather than just eyeballing a phone screen — will determine whether a mobile driver's license becomes a true physical-card replacement or stays a TSA-checkpoint convenience for the next few years.

Written byNadia Osei

Nadia Osei covers mobile and consumer gadgets for Pandromeda: smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, earbuds and smart-home devices. She tracks launches, software updates and pricing across Apple, Google, Samsung and the rest, and builds comparisons from the manufacturers' published specifications.

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