Apple Says U.S. Passport Feature on iPhone is Coming Soon

[sw1tcher]

It’s great that it will be available in US this year. 🇺🇸 I can just imagine the work that goes behind something like this to secure and work right everytime. Only possible is America 🇺🇸

And yet Ukraine has had a digital passport since 2020 with their Diia app.

Ukrainian IDs go digital, biometric passports available in Diia mobile application | Biometric Update

The Ukrainian government has approved a resolution for digital passports with biometrics to be issued to all Ukrainians in the near future for use as eIDs.

www.biometricupdate.com

 

[nikhsub1]

I felt the same at first, but this is the step to getting digital ID to actually be useful in the US.

Since not all states (and therefore airports) accept the digitalID its useless since I still need to present the physical one, but adding the passport gives all airports incentive to accept it and therefore a path toward a future where it’s widely accepted.

Just like ApplePay when it first came out being useless until it became ubiquitous in the early 2020s

Agree. Still useless until everyone accepts it.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

It's cosmically funny that a government creating digital ID is authoritarian but a corporation developing it is a desirable feature.

 

[emulator]

It’s great that it will be available in US this year. 🇺🇸 I can just imagine the work that goes behind something like this to secure and work right every time. Only possible is America 🇺🇸

Sarcasm is strong with this one.

And yet Ukraine has had a digital passport since 2020 with their Diia app.

Ukrainian IDs go digital, biometric passports available in Diia mobile application | Biometric Update

The Ukrainian government has approved a resolution for digital passports with biometrics to be issued to all Ukrainians in the near future for use as eIDs.

www.biometricupdate.com

Good for them. They still need a visa and a physical passport to go anywhere but ok.

 

[bmark]

It's cosmically funny that a government creating digital ID is authoritarian but a corporation developing it is a desirable feature.

Exactly and the TSA most likely won't recognize digital passports for many years! Most states don't even have digital ID's yet.

 

[MN7119]

It is so interesting to learn how third world countries are much faster in adopting technology than the US. I was talking to a friend from Brazil and he told me that he can literally leave his house with just his cell phone. All his Government issued documents are on his phone, his bank cards, credit cards and even his car key. Yes, I know if your battery dies you are in trouble but it is nice to see how some countries at least try to offer convenience to their people. My US state will probably never allow my DL to be on my phone. Oh well.....

 

[MacTiki]

I think the most interesting thing about this is using it for age and identity verification in apps, online, and in stores.

“I think the most “ Orwellian “thing about this is using it for age and identity verification in apps, online, and in stores.”

There fixed it for you.

 

[GtrDude]

I can only wonder how long until they start adding ads there too that you have to scroll through and exit out of or wait for them to time out before you get to your passport

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I can't wait for the bars and casinos to deny me entry when I try to use my digital passport.

 

[LordArchie]

This will make some things easier, even though RealID is in place, the process to get a RealID requires an "in person" visit to the DMV.

 

[Robert.Walter]

ApplePay as originally designed is still not working. Mostly because Apple wanted a cut of the transactions. ApplePay was supposed to be like inserting your card, Chip and PIN in the rest of the world. What we call ApplePay now is nothing more than NFC tap transaction, subject to the same $$ restriction.

Digital ID is interesting, but I don't see it anytime soon. Every agency will need to equip frontline workers with compatible scanners. Which first requires, at least, a NA wide standard. Preferably a world wide standard, like passport data. Because, if my DL is on my phone, I want the cops to scan it, not giving them my device to take back to their cruiser. I still cringe when I'm in a US restaurant and I have to give the server my CC to process.

On the tech side the US is innovative. Payments, however, on the ground implementation wise, the US is backward, slow and uneven, I haven’t had to use my physical credit cards where I live in 10 years (when I travel, I carry a physical Visa card, but at home card stays in my desk, and it’s AP all the way and a couple hundred in cash to get home, or overnight in a hotel, if the system goes down).

The US is lucky it has Apple as it pulls the USA into safer easier ways of paying and identifying in every day situations.

Was happy to see a group of bills was introduced in Michigan that would pave the way for getting a MI DL/ID card in the AW.

I’m looking fwd when I can put my local European DL and ID card in my AW.

 

[Robert.Walter]

I am afraid that this is as useless as digital drivers license:

Every time I fly I try to use digital drivers license first. Almost every time TSA tells that "the machine is broken".

Unless a digital ID is _required_ to be accepted by organization like TSA, it will never work reliably. Just positioning it as a convenience feature and requiring you to carry physical ID as well has not worked this far.

Early days my friend.

Such was the availability and acceptance rate for AP. Now it is ubiquitous.

 

[Robert.Walter]

Never hand over your phone. Ever.

(Digital ID does not require nor imply handing over your phone)

Nor require that you unlock it.

 

[rjlawrencejr]

Great for those who want it. I’m not in any hurry for it. For domestic travel I carry the passport card. Better than that ridiculous REALID crap.

 

[leonremi]

It’s great that it will be available in US this year. 🇺🇸 I can just imagine the work that goes behind something like this to secure and work right everytime. Only possible is America 🇺🇸

France : have on my phone :
-Digital ID (linked to the NFC chip in my physical ID)
- Digital social security card

 

[imlynxy]

Not acceptable in Walmart

 

[ethanwa79]

Waste of time if it is ONLY useful in the USA.

You have to start somewhere. I promise you it's the slow bureaucratic governments around the world slowing this down, not Apple.

What do you think is taking so long for all the states to adopt driver's licenses? And why doesn't Walmart accept Apple Pay?

Apple wishes the adoption would speed up too.

 

[ethanwa79]

It’s great that it will be available in US this year. 🇺🇸 I can just imagine the work that goes behind something like this to secure and work right everytime. Only possible is America 🇺🇸

Spoken like someone who's never left the county. Ignorant take my friend.

 

[MallardDuck]

It's always best practice to power off all devices before going through, so this is kinda...pointless?

 

[martint235]

It’s great that it will be available in US this year. 🇺🇸 I can just imagine the work that goes behind something like this to secure and work right everytime. Only possible is America 🇺🇸

Yep the rest of the world is working on contactless travel. You’re right only possible in America 😂

 

[Robert.Walter]

I don’t know why a VP at Apple has to play coy with the “coming soon” nonsense.

By this point it would be much more professional to say “targeted for iOS 26.2 or earlier”.

TBH Given holidays, wonder if 26.2 will drop before the end of the year. It could very well be that 26.1 enables it and a server did switch activates it.

 

[doobydoooby]

i dont get the point of this, it would need to be valid absolutely everywhere. This idea of it being accepted in "certain airports" is hopeless; what if there's a storm and your flight is diverted? We are all going to continue to need to carry the valid paper documentation.

 

[Radeon85]

We have real privacy laws in the UK, same as EU. Most of us don’t want this.

This has nothing to do with privacy, what does it matter if my passport or driving licence is physical or digital? Because the government, UK or US already has this info and has for as long as those two forms of ID have existed, which is many decades, so nothing will change there. This is not the same as the stupid digital ID system we want to bring in for every UK citizen, this is about taking two items I already have and digitising them for convenience.

 

[ZipZilla]

Maybe I would have this on my phone as a backup (if anyone accepts it outside the US.) The countries I go to, I would not want to hand over my phone to immigration

 

[Kiwidevdude]

Makes sense for domestic travel. Looking forward to it.

In my country you're meant to carry photo ID but its never checked.