Joe Hindy / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Samsung has announced it’s partnering with Clear to bring digital passports to Samsung Wallet.
- Digital passports are accepted at some US airports for domestic flights, but can’t be used to travel internationally.
Samsung Wallet has announced a new feature that competitors Apple Wallet and Google Wallet have offered for some time. Starting today, you can add your US passport to Samsung’s digital wallet — though the digital passport feature comes with the same restrictions as on other platforms.
Samsung announced the change today in a blog post. The feature is being offered through a partnership with Clear, the private travel documentation company frequent fliers will know from their sales pitches aimed at folks waiting in TSA lines.
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Digital IDs are an appealing idea, theoretically eliminating the need to carry physical identification documents. But some use cases will still require you to present your physical passport book, including any time you’re traveling internationally.
Digital passport documents are accepted at some US airports as proof of identity for domestic flights, but you should still carry an accepted hard-copy ID of some kind when flying. Samsung acknowledges this: its announcement today says that Wallet’s new support for digital passports lets travelers “leave their physical IDs in their bag,” not leave them at home.
Still, if you take a lot of domestic flights, being able to pull up your boarding pass and your ID on your phone should simplify things for you at the airport. Just don’t forget to have your actual ID on your person in case the digitized version doesn’t work out.
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