The Google app is already testing a driver's license integrated into Wallet in several North American states, the Mountain View app we usually pay for.
You have been able to carry your driving license on your mobile for a couple of years in Spain. This is possible thanks to the My DGT application. This application is designed to carry this document and those related to our car securely and electronically. Now this functionality is being extended to other applications focused on integrating bank cards or loyalty cards. This is the case with Google Wallet, which has already begun to integrate driver's licenses electronically in some regions. This opens up the possibility that in the future it may also be possible in Spain, without necessarily having to carry it in MiDGT.

Digital driver's license

Google is adding it to its Wallet app, following what we now know thanks to The Verge. According to this media, Google is already testing the digital driver's license in several states of the United States. Specifically, in Maryland, Colorado and Arizona. In all of them, the people of Mountain View already have tests running to see how this new digital document is deployed in their application. In fact, they have also shared images from this medium with the driving permissions configured in this application.

Let's see how this new functionality is set up, where you can choose which state the driver's license belongs to. Now among the licenses and cards that we can add to the application we can see the ID in the last place, in the United States it is basically a driver's license and in many cases an identification card, almost like an ID here. From what we can see in the images, according to Google, these cards are fully encrypted on the phone.

Therefore, only we have access to them, and therefore they are kept out of the hands of third parties. To add a driver's license it is necessary to take a photo of both faces, as well as upload a short video of our face to the servers, we understand to verify the authenticity of the data and that there is no identity, theft, through facial recognition. This functionality appears to have appeared in the beta version of the Google Wallet app at the moment; so it should still be a few weeks or months before it becomes a reality.

Of course, we are talking about the United States, because with such a sensitive documentation, it is obvious that each country must follow a development path in order to be able to adapt to the legislation in force. In Spain, with miDGT, it seems difficult for the authorities to hand over, as well as for users to access the card through third-party applications. In any case, it is a project that should still evolve a lot, and therefore it does not seem that it will be available soon in the case of our country, we will have to wait a year or so to see our driver's license. Google's app, or even Apple's, with another one for the same purpose.

When Apple announced iOS 15 in Spain, we saw that a very interesting feature was coming to Apple Wallet: the ability to link public documents on the iPhone. This includes IDs and others such as a driver's license. Now, Apple has announced the functionality of this feature, which will be coming to the United States for the first time.

And Apple has announced that it is already working with several states in the country to safely roll out this feature. He detailed how it will work once it's released, explaining some of the security layers of this new feature.

For example, users who want to link their identity card will have to go through an authentication process, for example asking for a selfie and taking a picture of that document.