An electronic driver’s license is a digital copy of your state-issued license or ID that lives inside a smartphone wallet or a state app, and it’s now available to residents of more than a dozen states and territories. The TSA accepts it at over 250 airport checkpoints as of May 2025, but acceptance by police in other states, banks, retailers, and polling places is still uneven. You’ll want to keep your plastic card on you.
Which States Issue One
Availability depends on where your license was issued and which wallet or app your state has authorized. Based on the TSA’s participating states list, the current rollout looks like this:
- Apple Wallet: Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Puerto Rico, and West Virginia.
- Google Wallet: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Maryland, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Puerto Rico.
- Samsung Wallet: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Maryland, North Dakota, and West Virginia.
Several states also run their own apps. Louisiana’s LA Wallet, launched in 2018, carries the same legal authority as the physical card. Utah uses GET Mobile ID, Iowa and Arkansas each have state-branded Mobile ID apps, California offers the CA DMV Wallet, Puerto Rico has PR Móvil, and West Virginia uses WV MiD. State apps sometimes hold extras the major wallets don’t, such as vehicle registrations or hunting permits.1Transportation Security Administration. Participating States and Eligible Digital IDs
If you don’t drive, check whether your state’s program covers standard ID cards too. Illinois, for one, extends its Mobile ID to both driver’s licenses and non-driver state IDs.
How to Set One Up
You need three things to start: a valid, unexpired physical license or state ID, a compatible smartphone, and the app your state’s motor vehicle agency has authorized. Device requirements vary. New York sets its floor at iPhone 6 or Android 7, and other states and wallet platforms may require newer hardware to support the encryption involved.2New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. Mobile ID (MiD) for License, Permit and ID Holders Confirm specifications on your state DMV’s site before downloading.
Enrollment follows a predictable pattern. You scan the front and back of your physical card with your phone’s camera, then complete a liveness check by taking a selfie or performing head movements the app prompts. The software matches that live image against the photo your state already has on file, which is the main defense against someone else loading your identity onto their device.3Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. Arkansas Mobile ID App Users
Some states ask for extra information during enrollment. California wants you to log in to or create a MyDMV account.4California DMV. CA DMV Wallet Approval can be near-instant or take several business days. Until your digital credential is approved, your plastic card is still your only valid ID.
How You Actually Use It
Presenting a digital license doesn’t involve handing anyone your phone. The exchange follows an international standard, ISO 18013-5, that lets your phone talk to a verifier’s reader either through NFC (a tap) or by displaying a QR code the verifier scans.5International Organization for Standardization. ISO/IEC 18013-5:2021 – Personal Identification – ISO-Compliant Driving Licence – Part 5: Mobile Driving Licence (mDL) Application The reader receives a digitally signed data packet confirming your credential is authentic and unaltered. At TSA, that happens through Apple Wallet, Google Wallet, Samsung Wallet, or a state-issued app at over 250 participating airports, though not every terminal has compatible readers.6Transportation Security Administration. Digital Identity and Facial Comparison Technology
Selective Disclosure
Hand a bartender your plastic license and they see your full name, address, date of birth, and license number. A digital credential can share only the specific fact being requested. A bar can ask for an “over 21” confirmation and get back a yes-or-no result without your birthdate, address, or anything else leaving your phone. That’s a real privacy improvement over the plastic card for age checks and similar single-fact verifications.
Working Offline
You don’t need a data connection at the moment of presentation. ISO 18013-5 supports direct device-to-reader exchange, with the reader confirming authenticity against known public keys from the issuing authority. The credential works in airplane mode or in a basement bar with no signal.
Where It’s Accepted (and Where It Isn’t)
At the federal level, the REAL ID Act was amended to explicitly cover electronic credentials. The statute now defines “driver’s license” to include licenses “stored or accessed via electronic means, such as mobile or digital driver’s licenses, which have been issued in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Secretary.”7GovInfo. REAL ID Act of 2005 REAL ID enforcement took effect on May 7, 2025, so any ID used to board a domestic flight or enter a federal building must meet REAL ID standards, whether on your phone or in your wallet.8Transportation Security Administration. REAL ID
State-level acceptance is spottier. Police in participating states can verify a mobile credential at a traffic stop, but that authority comes from state law, not a federal mandate. A Colorado mDL isn’t necessarily recognized by an officer in a state that hasn’t passed enabling legislation. Being cited for driving without a license because the officer’s jurisdiction doesn’t accept your digital credential is a real possibility, even if the credential is perfectly valid in your home state.
Everyday verifiers lag further behind. Banks typically still want a physical card for account opening and major transactions because their Know Your Customer processes weren’t built around cryptographically signed mobile credentials. The National Institute of Standards and Technology has pointed to mDLs as a potential fraud-reduction tool for financial transactions, but widespread banking adoption hasn’t landed yet.9National Institute of Standards and Technology. Check Your Wallet? How Mobile Driver’s Licenses are Changing Online Transactions Most retail point-of-sale systems also lack compatible readers, so you’ll keep pulling out plastic at bars, liquor stores, and tobacco shops. And voter ID is largely unresolved: whether a mobile credential satisfies a state’s voter ID law depends entirely on that state’s legislation, and most states haven’t spoken to the question.
If Your Phone Dies, Disappears, or Your License Gets Suspended
A dead battery usually means an inaccessible license. Some newer iPhones keep certain wallet credentials available for a few hours after the battery dies through a power reserve feature, but this varies by model and state program. The reliable fix is keeping your physical card on you.
If your phone is lost or stolen, treat it like any other lost phone first. Use Find My iPhone or Google’s Find Hub to lock or erase it remotely; a factory reset wipes the credential along with everything else, but the device has to have power, be on a network, and be signed into your account for a remote wipe to go through.10Google Account Help. Find, Secure, or Erase a Lost Android Device Then contact your state DMV. Issuing authorities can revoke the digital credential on their end, independently of what’s happening on the device itself.
A digital license is a live credential, not a static image. If your driving privileges are suspended or revoked, your state DMV can push a status change and initiate deletion of the mDL data on your device. The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators’ implementation guidelines describe this mechanism in detail.11American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. Mobile Driver’s License Implementation Guidelines Trying to use a digital credential while suspended carries the same legal consequences as presenting a revoked plastic card.
Privacy Tradeoffs
Selective disclosure gives you more control than a physical card in the moment, but digital credentials create tracking possibilities that plastic never did. Each presentation can be logged by the verifier, building a record of where and when you’ve shown ID. The apps themselves may contact developer or DMV servers in the background, carrying metadata about your device, location, or connection. Privacy advocates have also raised concerns that law enforcement verification could extend into pulling other data from the phone, given how widely mobile forensic tools are already deployed. No federal privacy law currently sets limits on what a verifier can do with the data it collects from an mDL scan.
In practice, the sensible stance for now is to treat the electronic license as a convenient supplement. Use it where it works, enjoy the selective disclosure where retailers are set up for it, and keep the plastic in your wallet for everywhere else.