Ahead of Apple Wallet feature launch, Washington DC votes to allow digital ID cards

Apple announced last month that it would be delaying support for storing your ID in the Wallet app until 2022. In the meantime, local states and cities in the United States continue to press ahead with legislation efforts needed to allow for digital IDs.

As first reported by The Washington Post, Washington DC’s city council has approved the use of digital driver’s licenses and IDs. This paves the way for IDs issued by Washington DC to be supported by the Apple Wallet application at some point in the future.

The legislation, which passed unanimously, gives the Department of Motor Vehicles authority to issue digital credentials and lets residents present identification in an electronic format, such as on a smartphone, instead of a physical credential, except when prohibited by federal law.

The report goes on to note that Washington DC’s motor vehicle agency is developing a platform that would host the credentials. Notably, this is something that Apple requires agencies to do in order to integrate with the Apple Wallet app.

Apple’s support for storing digital IDs in Wallet was originally slated to be released in “late 2021,” but has ultimately been delayed until sometime in 2022. Apple has said that the first US states that would adopt digital Apple Wallet IDs, including Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Utah.

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