Facebook, with an aim to woo video-loving adolescents and challenge Snapchat, on Friday, released a new iPhone app that allows teens to watch clips about the lives of their classmates.

The app, called Lifestage, was released rather quietly, and is available for anyone to download on iPhone, but seeing profiles of other users is restricted to those 21 years of age or younger.

The social network allows users to make video clips to describe likes, peeves, dance styles, and other aspects of their personality.

The clips are woven together to serve as public profiles that can be viewed by other Lifestage members, provided they fall in the prescribed age group. There is a tool in the app that lets users block and report older folks.

"Lifestage makes it easy and fun to share a visual profile of who you are with your school network," reads the app's iTunes store description. however, once enough number of students at any given school have joined the app, it becomes "unlocked."

"Once your school is unlocked, you can access the profiles of others in your school community [and all over!] so you can get to know people better in your school and nearby schools," the description says.

The app is being seen as a direct challenge to Snapchat, the dwindling message service that became a hit with teenagers and which allows members to share pictures and video clips.