Many in the travel industry believe that the concept of digital wallets and digital identification is about to undergo a radical change. Even the United States government is pushing this technology forward.
Google announced on Thursday the addition of its digital wallet to its efforts to promote awareness and adoption for digital ID technology.
“Today, we announced a type of digital identification in Google Wallet that can be created by using a U.S.passport. This will allow more people to save a digital identification even if the state hasn’t yet launched a solution,” Alan Stapelberg stated in a Google Wallet release.
The technology giant will soon begin beta testing this new feature. Google Wallet users, who choose to create a digital passport ID using their passport, will eventually be able use the identification form from their Android device at a select number of TSA checkpoints.
Stapelberg said that people with certain U.S. State-issued IDs can already present their digital ID via Google Wallet in “dozens” U.S. Airports to pass through TSA.
Google also announced that Android customers in California will be able save their driver’s license or state issued ID in the Google Wallet App. In the near future, users from Iowa, New Mexico and Ohio will have access to the same feature.
Google Wallet users in the U.S. will be able add prepaid commuter card to their wallet. Commuters living in Hamburg, Germany, will be able save their tickets. Google plans to offer new features to commuters also in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
