- Florida has abruptly stopped its Smart ID program.
- Current users are being informed to uninstall the app.
- A replacement solution is not expected until early next year.
How long will it be before you only need to have your phone on you when going out? Depending on your needs, that day may have already arrived, and between smart locks, mobile payments, and digital IDs, solutions exist to replace a lot of the physical keys and cards we used to have to carry around. Progress like that is a wonderful thing, which only makes it sting that much more to see things backtrack — which is just what Florida is doing now, for stupid reasons.
It’s been a glacially slow, and incredibly piecemeal process, but little by little we’ve been seeing more jurisdictions bring their residents support for some form of digital ID. Sometimes that wait has taken years, so when Florida finally got its Smart ID program underway in late 2021, we’re sure a lot of people were very happy. Sadly, the good times are coming to a close as Florida informs users of the Smart ID app that the service is no longer functional, and requests that they uninstall the software.