iPhone owners in Arizona can now add their driver's license: Talking Tech podcast

Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

More: Daily news, true crime, and more Paste BN podcasts

Hey there, listeners. It's Brett Molina. Welcome back to Talking Tech.

Arizona becomes the first state where you can add your driver's license or your state identification card directly to your iPhone. Apple announced on Wednesday that Arizona is the first state to offer residents this option, where you can add your license or your ID directly to your wallet app. I write about this in a story that you can read on tech.USAtoday.com. The biggest use case for this is now, travelers who have their driver's license or their state ID on their iPhone can go to select transportation security administration checkpoints, at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, and check in. So, here's how it'll work.

Basically, what you do is if you have it on your phone, you go up to, basically, a digital reader. It works like when you tap for Apple Pay. You go to this reader, you tap your phone, the phone will pull up your license. It'll say, "This is what the TSA wants to see." You agree to it, and then the TSA sees all your information. You also have to have a photo taken as well, because it's similar to the process where, when you go check out with TSA, say at the airport, and you hand your ID, they look at you. They look at the ID.

Similar process, the idea being that nobody's there. So, they're taking your picture. They're seeing the info on your phone, and then you go through and process it. Obviously, multiple states are going to be doing this. Apple announced on Wednesday that Colorado, Hawaii, Mississippi, Ohio, and Puerto Rico will join the list of states that they already announced. There were seven others that they announced last September when they first talked about this feature. That was Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Utah. So, if you have an iPhone 8 or later, or if you have an Apple Watch 4 or later, this feature will work.

So, how exactly do you add your driver's license to your iPhone? You go to the wallet app. You'll hit the plus sign and it'll offer you the option to pick driver's license or state ID. Then, you take a selfie. After your selfie, you'll take pictures of the front and the back of your ID card. Then, you're going to do this process. It's similar to when you set up face ID on an iPhone. They want to get a scan of different facial and head movements, part of the process of verifying your identity.

Then what happens is Apple sends information over to the state. It includes your selfie. It includes the images of your ID, and an analysis by Apple that confirms, based on their head and face scan, this is you. Once states approve it, the iPhone owner gets a notification and it says that your digital driver's license or state ID is ready to go. And the idea is it's going to obviously work at various TSA checkpoints, as it spreads throughout the rest of the country.

Apple also says this data is encrypted. It just operates between the device and the digital reader, and that's it. I think the TSA stuff is great if you travel a lot and you just need a really quick way to verify who you are and you want to scan your phone, and it's all right there. Where I'm more interested in this feature is where else are we going to see it beyond just TSA?

Because obviously, this is Apple's way of you turning your phone into a wallet. We've already seen with apple pay, you put your credit cards on there. Now, you'll do your license. Now, you'll have stuff like your car key, your house key. Everything is on your phone. I'm still leery of that. That just feels like a lot of stuff on one device. But again, Apple says it's encrypted. Apple said it's very secure. I'm still a little leery, but anyway, that's for another time. And I've talked about this before on previous podcasts.

But I really want to see what other use cases develop as a result of having your driver's license or state ID on your iPhone. What happens when it comes to law enforcement, for example? Say you get pulled over for speeding. Is the police officer going to have a reader and you can just have your phone, and he sees your driver's license? How does that all work?

I think right now, it's really hard to see what the full volume of uses you can get out of this outside of it's great for if you fly. But beyond that is where I really want to know how this feature is going to benefit anyone who owns an iPhone and wants to add their driver's license to their iPhone.

You can read more about this feature and keep up with all our coverage related to Apple, Google, whichever tech company you love, by going to tech.USAtoday.com. Listeners, let's hear from you. Do you have any comments, questions, show ideas? Any tech problems you want us to try to address? You can find me on Twitter, @brettmolina23.

Please don't forget to subscribe and rate us, or leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, anywhere you get your podcasts. You've been listening to Talking Tech. We'll be back tomorrow with another quick hit from the world of tech.