Good news, Connecticut: after years of waiting, we’re finally getting a digital driver’s license. The DMV says Connecticut Mobile ID launches November 18. (ct dmv)
Bad news: it’s not in Apple Wallet. It’s not in Google Wallet or Samsung Wallet either. It’s another app. A separate, free “Connecticut Mobile ID” app you download from the App Store or Google Play, built by a vendor called IDEMIA. (idemia)
That’s not what we were promised.
Remember 2021?
On September 1, 2021, Apple announced the first states signed up to put driver’s licenses in Apple Wallet: Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Utah. Governor Lamont was right there in the press release: “We’re pleased to be one of the first states working with Apple to deploy driver’s licenses and state identification cards in Apple Wallet.” (apple)
One of the first. Let’s check the scoreboard. Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Maryland, and Oklahoma from that original list all have IDs in Apple Wallet today. Apple’s list is now up to 16 states plus Puerto Rico. Connecticut isn’t on it. (apple, macrumors)
When I originally complained about the slow rollout last year, my question was simple: why is this taking so long? More than a year later, the answer appears to be “we were building something else.”
Wallet support is “coming soon.” Sure.
The IDEMIA help page literally asks the question: can I put my Connecticut license in Apple, Samsung, or Google Wallet? The answer: “These features will be coming soon.” (idemia)
How soon? In May, the State Bond Commission approved money for a “State of Connecticut digital wallet,” with a goal of rolling it out “by the end of the summer.” The same plan pushes compatibility with Apple, Google, Samsung, and other commercial wallets out to August 2027. (ct governor) Summer came and went. The app now lands just before Thanksgiving. And the thing the governor bragged about in 2021 is officially the sequel.
Why the app is the wrong call
The whole point of Apple Wallet is that it’s already on my phone. My credit cards, boarding passes, and transit cards are there. With an ID in Wallet, you tap your iPhone or Apple Watch on the reader, approve with Face ID, and you never unlock or hand over your phone. (apple)
Here’s what Connecticut is offering instead: download an app, wait for a verification text, photograph the front and back of your license, do a selfie dance, and then show your ID by generating a QR code for a “verify reader” to scan. (idemia) Businesses aren’t required to accept it, they need a “compatible verification app” if they do, and the DMV itself says acceptance “will initially be limited.” Police won’t take it, and you can’t use it to vote. Keep carrying the plastic card. (ct dmv)
And now the confusion part. If you have a passport, Apple Wallet already lets you make a passport-based Digital ID that TSA accepts. (tsa) So a Connecticut resident heading to Bradley could have a Digital ID in Wallet, a separate state app, and the physical license they still have to carry. Three IDs, one person, and a TSA officer wondering which one you’re about to wave at them. Then, maybe in 2027, a fourth version in Wallet.
It’s not like the neighbors are setting the pace either. TSA lists New York’s mobile ID as the “NY MiD app” only, and no New England state is on Apple’s list. (tsa, apple) Connecticut had a real shot to be the first in the region to do this the easy way. Apple put its name next to ours five years ago.
Here’s how this ends. Calling it now.
The DMV commissioner says he’s looking forward to “the increased adoption and use of Mobile ID amongst residents.” (ct dmv) Here’s my prediction for how that goes.
- Step 1: Launch a standalone app nobody has heard of, that most businesses don’t scan, that police won’t accept.
- Step 2: Few people download it, because why would they? Their phone already has a wallet, and they still need the card.
- Step 3: Businesses see few customers using it, so they don’t bother setting up a verifier. Which means even fewer people use it.
- Step 4: Somewhere around the August 2027 deadline, someone in Hartford points at the download numbers and says there “isn’t enough interest” to justify the Apple Wallet work.
Low adoption won’t mean people don’t want a digital ID. It’ll mean the state shipped the version people didn’t want, then used the results as proof. I hope I’m wrong. I’ve been wrong before. Not often about the DMV.
What Connecticut should do
- Make Apple, Google, and Samsung Wallet the priority, not the sequel. Sixteen states figured it out. Several of them were in the same 2021 press release as us.
- Don’t judge demand by the app. If you want to know whether people want a digital ID, measure it after it’s in the wallet they already use.
- Give us an actual date. “Coming soon” has been the plan since 2021.
So I’ll ask again, five years in: why is this taking so long? And when it finally shows up in Wallet, will anyone in Hartford still be paying attention?
