Technologies

Your iPhone Can Replace Your Physical Driver’s License, if You Live in One of These States

Your Face ID-authenticated digital driver’s license feels futuristic, and it’s legal in some US states.

Getting through airport security can be one of the most stressful parts of travel, but Apple is trying to streamline the process with a new digital ID feature. In select states, you can now add your driver’s license or state ID to Apple Wallet on your iPhone or Apple Watch. That means no more fumbling for your wallet at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints — just tap your device, and you’re good to go.

It’s a convenient upgrade if you live in one of the supported states and have a compatible iPhone. I tested the feature in California, and the setup process was surprisingly simple. Just keep in mind that you’ll need an iPhone 8 or newer running the right version of iOS, and depending on your state’s rollout, some users may hit snags. Still, it’s a small tech shift that can make your travel day a whole lot smoother.

Right now, digital IDs are primarily used to go through TSA checkpoints in certain airports when flying domestically, but that’ll likely change in the future. Want to use your digital ID at your favorite bar or nightclub? We’re not there yet.

Below, I describe my experience, the hiccups I encountered on the way and things that you should know if you plan on adding your driver’s license to Apple Wallet. I’ll also break down how you can add your ID to your iPhone, step by step.

For more, don’t miss these low-key iOS 26 features we’re excited for.

These states support digital IDs on iPhones right now

Only a handful of states support digital IDs in Apple Wallet. One key factor is how each state implements its Mobile Driver’s License system. For instance, Louisiana, New York, Utah and Virginia all support mobile driver’s licenses but require separate apps for digital IDs.

States and regions that support digital IDs in Apple Wallet:

Arizona
California
Colorado
Georgia
Hawaii
Iowa
Maryland
New Mexico
Ohio
Puerto Rico

Some states originally announced to support Apple’s digital ID haven’t quite gotten there yet.

The number of states supported in Apple Wallet is about half of what the TSA currently allows. Collectively, it accepts digital IDs across Apple Wallet, Google Wallet, Samsung Wallet and state-based mobile apps in 15 states.

What are the iPhone requirements to add your driver’s license to Apple Wallet?

Where you live is just the start. You also have to have the right iPhone model and the right software setup.

Here are the minimum requirements that Apple lists:

An iPhone 8 or later with the latest version of iOS
Have Face or Touch ID enabled on your device
Have two-factor authentication enabled on your Apple account
A license or ID from a participating state or territory
Your device’s region set to the United States

I’ll have more to say in a bit about that iPhone 8 and iOS requirement and a catch I ran into.

My experience adding my ID to my iPhone was easy

For testing purposes, I used the iPhone 16E.

The process of adding the ID was simple. I scanned the front and the back of my ID and the next step was to verify my identity. This wasn’t nearly as nerve-wracking as I thought it would be. Instead, it took a live photo of my face for 2.5 seconds.

After that, more verification was required. This came in a series of different photos, with prompts directing me to close my eyes, open my mouth, smile and tip my head down. This verification process took about three minutes. (Or longer in my case, as I got distracted writing notes about the process and then found I had to restart the whole process.)

Then, after I submitted those photos, there was another verification step, presumably with the photos relayed to the California DMV. A screen message told me that I would receive a notification when there was an update. I expected this to take a long time, but not even 10 minutes later, a notification telling me that my ID was ready to use popped up. That was easy.

What about older iPhones?

So, not every phone you think might work will actually do so. The first time I tested adding my ID, I was using an iPhone 8 Plus. But when I arrived at the setup page within Apple Wallet, I was given eight states to choose from, and California wasn’t one of them.

That surprised me. I’d found a helpful Apple support article that explained the requirements for adding a driver’s license or state-issued ID to Apple Wallet and it seemed like I shouldn’t have any trouble.

At first, I thought the roadblock was that I hadn’t set up Touch ID yet. But no, California was still not on my list of eight states. (Equally confusing, a colleague of mine also tried this with an iPhone 8 and Apple Wallet only listed four states.)

I went back to the Apple support article and looked for fine print, and sure enough, there it was. I’d ignored the asterisk in the requirements, because California has had its Mobile Driver’s License program set up for some time now.

The fine print at the very bottom of the page states, «For California, ID in Apple Wallet requires iPhone XS or later with iOS 17.5 or later.» (For Puerto Rico, if you want to add your driver’s license or ID to Apple Wallet, you’ll need to have an iPhone XS or later with iOS 18.1.)

So if you’re holding onto an iPhone 8 or iPhone X and live in California, you won’t be able to add your driver’s license to your iPhone because of the lack of software support. iOS 16 is the last supported version of the operating system for iPhone 8 and X models.

How to add your ID or driver’s license to Apple Wallet

If you live in a state that supports digital IDs for Apple Wallet, it’s easy to add one. After it’s added, you’ll need to verify your identity, which can take a little longer but it’s still a straightforward process.

Open Apple Wallet.
Tap the Add button.
Tap Driver’s License or ID and select your location.
If applicable, choose whether you want to add your ID to your iPhone only or your iPhone and your Apple Watch.
Follow the steps to scan your license or ID.

(Make sure you scan your ID in a well-lit environment and that the image is in focus.)

Once it’s scanned, you’ll be prompted to confirm your identity with a selfie photo. According to Apple, you may be asked to complete a number of facial or head movements for identification purposes.

To ensure an easier verification process, Apple suggests that you:

Stand in front of a plain background with neutral, light paint.
Be in a well-lit area, ideally indoors.
Take off sunglasses, masks, hats or other accessories that could block your face.
Hold your iPhone steady.

When you’re finished, submit your information by confirming with Touch or Face ID. Your biometrics will be bound to the ID, so only you can use it.

How to transfer your digital ID to another iPhone

If you upgrade your iPhone, you’ll need to transfer your ID or driver’s license to it.

During initial setup, tap Wallet.
Select your ID.
Follow the steps.
Tap to confirm you want to move your driver’s license or ID to the new device.

So, now what?

Your digital ID isn’t just a photo of your ID that you can pull up within Apple Wallet. In fact, you don’t even see a full image of your physical ID. In order to actually view your information from your digital ID, you’ll need to tap on your ID «card» in Apple Wallet, tap the «i» at the top-right of the screen, and then tap State ID info or Card Information (the wording may be different depending on what version of iOS your iPhone is running). From there, it will show your ID photo as well as essential pieces of information from your physical ID.

TSA checkpoints that support digital IDs require a dedicated scanner, so the process may not necessarily feel like it’s faster than showing your physical ID to the agent.

Here’s a video of the process via the Maryland Department of Transportation:

The idea of a digital ID is pretty convenient but overall, it probably won’t save you a meaningful amount of time. Couple that fact with its incredibly limited use cases right now and the fact that merchant or event adoption will require investment in proper hardware and it’s pretty easy to see just how far off we are from ditching physical IDs.

Selling or trading in your iPhone? Do this first.

When you move on from a phone that has your ID on it, you’ll want to do the same thing you do with other sensitive info like credit or debit cards and passwords: Remove it.

So before you wipe your iPhone to sell or trade it in, you should manually remove your ID first. Here’s how to do it.

Go to Apple Wallet and tap your ID in the list
Tap the «i» button at the top right of the screen
Tap Remove State ID (or Driver’s License)
Read the warning that pops up and tap Remove

Digital passports are coming to Apple Wallet with iOS 26

While states are taking time to implement digital ID systems, Apple announced a feature coming in iOS 26 this year: You can add a digital passport to Apple Wallet.

When that feature is available, iPhone users will be able to scan their passports to create a digital version for identity verification during domestic travel. You won’t be able to use it for international travel and it’s not a full replacement for a physical passport (so keep your physical one on you) but it should work at the 250-plus supported TSA checkpoints.

During its WWDC keynote in June, Apple said that the digital ID made from your passport can also be used «in apps and in person» but it didn’t give any specifics.

This is essentially what can be done on Android through Google Wallet.

Verify with Wallet ID verification could make ordering alcohol easier

Also headed to iPhones this fall is an easier way for you to prove your age using your digital ID. Say you want to have a bottle of wine sent to your place via Uber Eats. Typically, when the driver arrives, you’ll need to present your ID and have it scanned to complete the transaction but with the new Verify with Wallet, your stored digital ID will be used to verify your age. (I do wonder if things might get more complicated when the delivery arrives if you’re not the one receiving it.)

Verify with Wallet will be supported by Chime, Turo, Uber Eats and U.S. Bank.

For more, don’t miss what you should know about flying domestically without a Real ID in 2025.

Technologies

I Used to Tell People Wi-Fi 7 Routers Were a Waste of Money. CNET’s Lab Data Just Proved Me Wrong

Technologies

My Camera Test: Comparing the $499 Pixel 10A With the Galaxy S25 FE, Motorola Edge

The Pixel 10A’s cameras are similar to those on the 9A, but it still performs quite well compared to other phones in its price range.

Google’s $499 Pixel 10A uses nearly the same cameras as last year’s Pixel 9A, but I wanted to see how its photos directly match up to its midrange Android rivals: the $650 Samsung Galaxy S25 FE and the $550 Motorola Edge.

I traveled with all three phones around St. Petersburg, Florida, checking how flexible each was in different environments, from bright outdoor settings to an indoor coffee shop and an evening brewery. All three environments can be challenging for the small image sensors on each phone.

While I find the cameras on all three phones to have different strengths and weaknesses depending on the setting, I’m quite impressed with how the Pixel 10A keeps up. In my tests, the photos include lots of detail, even though certain settings appear to involve a lot of processing to improve them.

Wide and telephoto cameras

Starting with photos taken on the sidewalk in downtown St. Petersburg, I notice that all three phones handle bright sunlight slightly differently, especially how it’s depicted on the street.

For the Pixel 10A, the sun provides a slight exposure mark over the Bay First sign at the top of the frame, but it remains fairly cordoned off to focus on the rest of the streetscape. Zooming in, you can see the Century 21 location, but the street is captured in the most detail, with the phone’s camera maintaining its natural gray color.

For both the Galaxy S25 FE and the Motorola Edge, the sun has a more pronounced effect on the rest of the image. The pavement’s color is notably brighter. I also find both the S25 FE and the Edge have slightly more clarity on the business signs on the Bay First building, including the aforementioned Century 21 logo.

Since the S25 FE and the Edge each include a telephoto camera that supports 3x optical zoom, I took a photo at that zoom with each phone. The Pixel 10A uses digital zoom on the phone’s 48-megapixel wide camera, but a lot of the scene’s detail remains preserved.

The Pixel’s zoom photo provides a clear view of the 7th St N sign, the trees and the plants. However, if you look further back at the next intersection, you’ll notice that the 7th St S sign and the Colony Grill are much harder to see. It’s those smaller details that are captured by the S25 FE and the Edge, both aided by telephoto cameras, making them more visible.

Of the three zoom photo examples, I feel like the S25 FE has the best color reproduction while also retaining details like the signs further back. Even though the photo was taken with the S25 FE’s 8-megapixel telephoto camera rather than its 50-megapixel wide camera, the colors remain complementary when comparing the 1x to the 3x. Meanwhile, the Edge’s 10-megapixel telephoto camera looks quite a bit different from the 50-megapixel wide camera — the whole image has a more yellowish hue.

Ultrawide cameras

Moving inside the Southern Grounds coffee shop, I decided to use the ultrawide cameras to capture my sausage, egg and cheese on toast. The three photos came out wildly different.

The Pixel 10A’s 13-megapixel ultrawide and S25 FE’s 12-megapixel ultrawide have a more balanced set of colors and details, in my opinion. The wheat toast appears lighter in the Pixel’s photo than in the darker hues captured by both the S25 FE and the Edge.

When zooming into my notebook, however, the Pixel and S25 FE captured more of the page markings, details that blur together more in the photo taken by the Edge. While the Edge’s 50-megapixel ultrawide camera is a higher-spec number, I noticed it had a harder time distinguishing toast levels, giving more of it a darker look. If I hadn’t eaten it myself, I’d have thought it was burned based on the Edge’s photo.

Night photography

Moving over to a nighttime setting, I used the three phones to take photos outside of 3 Daughters Brewing. I felt like all three did a decent job at producing the colors of the building, but they differ in how they handle light sources.

Both the Pixel and the S25 FE tone back the glare produced by the various lighting fixtures. Meanwhile, the Edge’s photos show noticeable streaks that dominate the sky. When inspecting the photos more closely, I find that the Galaxy captured a sharper view of the furniture, like in the Connect 4 set next to the blue chairs in the center of the frame. The same details are visible in the Pixel’s and the Edge’s depictions of the scene, but they appear smudgy by comparison.

This type of scene needs to take advantage of a phone’s processing power in order to iron out visibility issues, and I do find that the Edge appears to come up short here in this regard, with a lot of noticeable image noise.

Selfies

Each phone takes selfies with noticeable differences in style and color choices. For this test example, I’m in a well-lit daytime room with natural light from a window. The 12-megapixel front-facing camera on Google’s Pixel 10A brightened up my face as if there was a light in front of me, and captured a decent amount of the details of my hair and face.

The front-facing camera on Samsung’s Galaxy S25 FE shows a noticeably darker color tone, but it still captures a similar shade of orange on the wall behind me. Of the three photos, I felt like the S25 captures the most details, including strands of hair, and defaulted to a closer crop than the other two.

The photos taken by the 50-megapixel selfie camera on the Motorola Edge feel a bit smoothed out. The orange color on the wall is noticeably different from the Pixel and the S25 FE, though it does capture a lot of my face details, from hair strands to the fabric textures on my shirt.

The $499 Pixel 10A camera keeps up and, in some cases, exceeds the detail captured by the slightly more expensive $550 Motorola Edge and $650 Galaxy S25 FE. I’m quite impressed by how the Pixel camera handles colors and low-light environments, but the phone’s processing work sometimes makes scenes appear brighter than they are in real life.

The Galaxy S25 FE is no slouch either, with a third telephoto lens for capturing more detail farther away. While I did find the Motorola Edge to struggle in low light, it is one of the lowest-cost phone options currently available for someone who must have a 3x optical telephoto camera.

But if you can live without the telephoto lens, the Pixel 10A’s low cost and photography abilities will likely be a good fit for most people.

Google’s Pixel 10A Looks Stylish for a Low-Cost Flagship Phone

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for March 14 #741

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for March 14, No. 741.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Does today’s date seem memorable to you? If so, today’s NYT Strands puzzle might be easy. Some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: A math teacher’s favorite dessert.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: 3.14

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

RITE, SPIT, TIPS, STAT, STATE, GIVE, RUST, FINE, LAZE, SURE, PEAL

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

VENT, CRUST, FRUIT, EDGES, GLAZE, FILLING, LATTICE

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is HAPPYPIDAY. To find it, start with the H that’s six rows down and three to the right from the upper-left corner, and make — well, a pie shape.