The author ’s now - defunct Florida Smart ID app , with some entropy obnubilate or removed . Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends
The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles this calendar week announced that it “ will be retool its Florida Smart ID lotion ” and that it ’s take the app from app storehouse . In an email to those who were using ( or had used ) the serve , the section urged those who still had the app installed to remove it from their devices , “ as it will no longer be functional . ”
The email pronounce “ we expect the young app to be prepare by early 2025 . ” While theSmart ID pageis still available on the department ’s web site , the accompanying FAQhas been reduce to language roughly mirroring the electronic mail that was post out .
The author’s now-defunct Florida Smart ID app, with some information obscured or removed.Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends
I live in Florida , and I gave the Florida Smart ID app a try before this class . The app — progress by Thalesin a deal worth a reported $ 1.5 million — was n’t a specially fun experience . You ’d first scan the bar code on your current Florida ID , then take a new selfie so that the picture could be compared ( to make certain you ’re actually who your permission read you are , which make sense ) . If and when you come through the registration cognitive operation — it took a few endeavor before it really ferment — you ’d then have a digital representation of your ID , with a QR code that jurisprudence enforcement could run down .
But here ’s the affair : You ’d still have to have your forcible license on your someone if you were behind the wheel . So while the digital ID perhaps could replace the physical ID in some case , it did n’t neutralize the biggest of them all — drive .
And that ’s not even taking into story the hoops you have to stick out through to employ it at all , start out with installing an program and then go through the registration process .
The email from the delegacy definitively show as if the agency is solicit new vendors to give thing another go next year . Though if it ’s still in the selection process , “ early 2025 ” could well mean subsequently in 2025 .
We touch out to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles , but did not take in a response beyond a introductory email receipt .
While the number of users impacted is relatively modest — the South Florida Sun - Sentinel reported in 2023that there were only 95,000 user of the Smart ID app , andas of January 2024Florida had 18.2 million licenced driver — it ’s still a frustrating move for anyone hoping the legacy number one wood permit would get some sort of a 21st century update . That ’s especially true when you consider thatiOSandAndroidboth have built - in options for digital identification verification . But as of mid-2024 , only Arizona , Colorado , Georgia , and Maryland offer it via the platform ’ APIs .
