Facebook is launching a photo and video exchanging app similar to Snapchat. But, it will be a little different.

Slingshot, Facebook's new mobile app, will require you to send an image or video before you are able to open the image your friend sent you. This means an equal sharing experience requiring users to be active rather than just viewing images they receive and not sending an image in return.

"With Slingshot, we wanted to build something where everybody is a creator and nobody is just a spectator," its creators said Tuesday in a blog post announcing the app. "When everyone participates, there's less pressure, more creativity and even the little things in life can turn into awesome shared experiences."

Some users don't like the way Slingshot is designed.

"It's frustrating, not exciting when a friend sends you a shot and you can't immediately view it," wrote Ellis Hamburger in tech-news site The Verge. "Slingshot is a new and strange example of a messaging app that raises barriers instead of tearing them down, and increases the friction to viewing a friend's photo instead of reducing it."

The app is designed for users who want to share a spur of the moment image or video with their friends.

Facebook announced that Slingshot was available Tuesday in the U.S. on iOS and Android devices.

Slingshot is Facebook's attempt to compete with Snapchat, an app popular with teens and young adults. The app briefly leaked last week.

Snapchat is said to have 30 million users. The 2-year-old company turned down $3 billion from Facebook. Facebook decided to acquire WhatsApp, another messaging app that is more popular in other parts of the world.

Facebook has tried, in the past with Poke, to get users to have a convenient way to quickly send their friends short messages. The Poke app failed and was taken down from Apple's iTunes download store.

Facebook's Slingshot is very similar to Snapchat. The messages that friends exchange aren't saved, they disappear after a few seconds. Facebook even credits Snapchat for making this type of messaging so popular.

"We've enjoyed using Snapchat to send each other ephemeral messages and expect there to be a variety of apps that explore this new way of sharing," Facebook said in a post.

Users will be able to send multiple friends the same message. When they receive it, it will be scrambled until they reply with an image or video of their own.