Apple delays iOS 15's driver's license support until 'early 2022'

Wallet Ios
Wallet Ios (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

  • Apple has delayed a feature that would allow driver's licenses to be saved in the Wallet app.
  • Announced alongside iOS 15, the feature was supposed to be coming this year.
  • An updated web page shows early 2022 as the new window.

Apple appears to have delayed plans to make it possible for people to store their driver's license in the Wallet app until "early 2022" after initially saying it would be available later this year. The feature was previously planned for a late 2021 launch, but that is no longer happening.

A newly updated web page, spotted by MacRumors now shows that Apple intends to bring the driver's license support to iOS 15 devices at some point early next year, although there is no hard information as to why the delay is required. The feature isn't enabled in the latest iOS 15.2 beta, either.

Earlier this year Apple said that it would be supporting Arizona and Georgia as two of the first states to offer the feature to people, while Connecticut, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Utah were expected to follow. It isn't immediately clear whether any of this will now change how the rollout happens in specific states, however.

Apple also said that we should expect TSA checkpoints to be among the first places where the digital ID will function, with people tapping their iPhone or Apple Watch to an identity checking device in a similar way to how Apple Pay currently functions. The feature will also require Face ID or Touch ID to be used by way of authentication, too.

While it's fair to say that this feature isn't why people are buying iPhones, its delay is still a disappointment to many. Lets hope we don't see a further delay.

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.