I received an email notice from Apple this week:

Hawai?i residents can now add their drivers license or state ID to the Wallet app and use it to show proof of age or identity at select businesses and venues. Or, travel with it at select TSA checkpoints.

Of course, priding myself as an early adopter, I quickly opened the wallet app on my iPhone and followed the instructions. You’re asked to take a photo of your current drivers license, front and back. Then you take a photo of yourself. You are prompted until you get it right. Then you are asked to make a series of funny faces, which may just be to test that you’re not some kind of AI robot. As I recall, there’s not much more to it. Submit!

The instructions said it could take some time for your request to be reviewed and approved. But I received the approval within 24 hours.

This is what I now see in my digital wallet. None of the information is visible, but is apparently stored digitally and remains secure until you tap your phone on a compatible reader.

Unfortunately, it promises more than it delivers. Getting through TSA appears to be just about the only current use for the system here in Hawaii. Honolulu Airport is one of the short list of U.S. airports where your digital I.D. can get you through security.

ID cards in Wallet are currently available for use at select TSA checkpoints within Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI), Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport (CVG), Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL), Denver International Airport (DEN), Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH), Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA). Travelers should refer to checkpoint signage to confirm availability.

It will likely be years before it can be used in a traffic stop, or to verify your age when carded. Those will require the adoption of equipment to “read” the cards. I’m not holding my breath.

It will sit in my digital wallet among several credit cards, an AARP membership card, along with other occasionally used cards, such as my HOP Card for paying bus and rail fares when visiting Portland, Oregon, Clipper card for riding BART when in San Francisco, and my digital membership cards for Bishop Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.