What! Facebook user names to be linked with Aadhaar too

New Delhi : Facebook is now getting India ready with some new features and to test them, the company has asked its users to enter their names as per their Aadhaar Card.

However, the social media giant has not asked its users to give their Aadhaar number while creating a new account.

"This is a small test where we provide additional language when people sign up for an account to say that using the name on their Aadhaar card makes it easier for friends to recognise them," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday.

For now, only a few set of people using Facebook on mobile will be able to see the new feature. On success it will be rolled out to the all users.

"This is an optional prompt which we are testing," the spokesperson added.

The move is aimed at encouraging users to put their real names as they enter the social network for the first time.

"We want to make sure people can use the names they're known by on Facebook, and can easily connect with friends and family," Facebook said.

Facebook has over 217 million monthly active users in India and 212 million of them are active on smartphones.

It has 2.1 billion monthly active users globally.