iOS 27 Tweaks Apple Wallet's U.S. Passport Feature

Tell me how it works or I will never understand

You need FaceID for it to work and you need to be looking at the phone for it to activate.

This happened to me yesterday afternoon and I was looking all over to see whether or not it was just me. Glad to see this to explain it.

Isn't this useless? Kid could just take mom’s iPhone !

Egads, you've found a critical flaw in our passport system! A kid could just take Mom's passport..!

Given what TSA and ICE are doing at the border, I've actually started removing digital IDs from my iPhone and reverted to a numerical unlock instead of Face ID.

You can temporarily disable Face ID by long pressing the side and volume up buttons, or by pressing the side button five times quickly. Either way it brings up the off-switch screen, and Face/Touch ID won't work again until the phone is unlocked by passcode.

I understand the thought behind turning all this stuff off, but I think knowing you can quickly and temporarily disable it if you're in a situation where you need to is good enough. I say that from a place of privilege, of course, but I figured it might be of interest to people who don't know.

Isn't this useless? Kid could just take mom’s iPhone !

That's not how it works.

Mine got deactivated last night (I’d updated to beta 7 yesterday). Will try to add it again later today. In any case, you should ALWAYS bring your physical one with you.