The app can be downloaded from Apple's App Store and works like most other camera applications for smart phones. To take a photo, you tap a camera icon in the upper left corner of your screen, aim and shoot. You can then add filters, crop or tilt your photo, and share it on Facebook.

The new app is similar to Instagram, the photo-sharing app Facebook is in the process of buying for $1 billion. The acquisition, however, has not yet been completed, and Instagram's employees did not work on the photo app. Facebook has said it expects the Instagram acquisition to close sometime this year.

Facebook didn't give details on when it might release a version of the app for phones that run on Google's Android operating system. In a statement, Facebook said it is "carefully looking at what might make for a good Facebook photos experience across Android devices."

(AP)