The iPhone will be able to store the French digital ID card, but there is a catch

The future French digital identity card will be able to be stored on iPhones. But there is a catch. This will not be compatible with Apple’s “Maps” application. To use your digital identity card, you will therefore have to download the France Identity application.

“Hello sir, your identity papers please”. From now on, during an identity check carried out by the French police forces, you will no longer have to search desperately in your bag or in your wallet to find your identity card and prove at the same time who you are. are. As you probably know, the digital version of the identity card is coming to France.

Under iOS 16, your iPhone can even accommodate the document in digital format. But for all iPhone users, there is a catch. Because this future French digital identity card will not be compatible with the “Cartes” application (or “Wallet”) from Apple. To be able to use the document on your iPhone, you will therefore have to use the France Identity application. The latter is currently in beta on iOS and Android.

The future French digital identity card will not be compatible with Apple’s “Cartes” application

It is therefore a small blow that have just suffered iPhone users. Usually, Apple’s “Cards” (or “Wallet”) app made it possible to store several documents on your iPhone – since the iOS 15 update. Like train tickets, a means of payment or our famous vaccine pass. One could then logically think that the French digital identity card would also be able to be stored in this way on the application. But the French authorities were obviously not of the same opinion.

With our colleagues from Parisian, the National Agency for Secure Documents (ANTS) explained that the authorities wanted to keep “a sovereign function and not giving up national data to a private actor”. “The more data is transferred to the smartphone, the more the attack surface for hackers increases” even added the ANTS. Thereby, it will therefore be necessary to download the France Identity application to use your future digital identity card. This will be possible when the final version of iOS 16 is available, probably around the beginning of September.

Source: ants.gouv.fr