Apple just delayed major iOS 15 feature until 2022

An Apple iPhone and an Apple Watch displaying mock-ups of Apple's digital representation of a state driver's license.

(Image credit: Apple/Tom's Guide)

Apple has quietly revealed that its upcoming digital ID feature, which will allow users to store government-issued IDs in the Wallet app, has been delayed.

Digital ID was first announced at WWDC 2021 with an expected launch at some point this year. However, an update on the official iOS 15 website, as spotted by MacRumors, has confirmed that the company has pushed the release of the digital ID feature to sometime in early 2022.

Once released, this exciting new option will grant users the ability to store state ID or driver’s license in the Apple Wallet in the same manner as credit and debit cards. Locations that make use of the feature will do so by confirming your ID via an iPhone or Apple Watch. It will make for quite a painless experience, too, as a simple tap on the device by an identity reader will get the job done quickly and efficiently.

The initial release of digital ID won’t be usable everywhere right out of the gate, though. Apple has stated that only eight states will support digital ID at launch, including Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Utah — with more assumed to follow as the technology becomes more widely used.

The first significant location to normalize the feature will be TSA checkpoints at select U.S. airports, though it’s expected to be adopted at a variety of major retailers over time. Apple Wallet is accepted at thousands of locations around the world, so it’s only feasible to see this ID feature become more and more prevalent as everything shifts towards a digital future.

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Billy Givens is a journalist with nearly two decades of experience in editing and writing across a wide variety of topics. He focuses particularly on games coverage for Tom's Guide and other sites including From Gamers Magazine, Retroware, Game Rant and TechRaptor. He's also written for self-improvement sites such as Lifehack and produced in-depth analyses on subjects such as health, psychology and entertainment.