SANTA CLARA, Calif., Dec. 07, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Agora, Inc. (NASDAQ: API), a pioneer and leading platform for real-time engagement APIs, has announced Smule, a popular social singing app that lets users enjoy millions of karaoke songs, as its latest customer to enable users to sing carols in real-time this season and spread holiday cheer with the improved Sing Live feature. Utilizing Agora’s robust Software-Defined Real-time Network (SD-RTN™), Smule users will be able to sing together and connect to one another virtually with zero lags and latency for a seamless experience during the holidays.

Agora’s SD-RTN utilizes 250 data centers around the world to ensure real-time delivery without latency. With Smule’s Sing Live, powered by Agora, carolers can join their friends and family in holiday duets regardless of their geographic location, all without any lags or delays. All Smule users can join audio-only Sing Live sessions for free and Smule VIP subscribers can host video Sing Live sessions with family and friends in Groups.

“Many families still can’t be together this year due to travel restrictions so we’re thrilled to give them the opportunity to live stream and sing carols together virtually,” said Tony Zhao, CEO and founder of Agora. “By powering real-time engagement, we’re enabling millions to connect virtually during the holiday season and still feel a sense of being present together.”

Smule became Agora’s latest customer due to the company’s ability to scale and quick time-to-market delivery. Using Agora’s interactive live streaming software development kits (SDKs), Smule was able to utilize interactive streaming at a very large scale with excellent synchronization between endpoints. With the ease of use of Agora’s APIs, Smule is enabling deeper connections with users and driving additional revenue opportunities.

“With Agora's SD-RTN we were able to dramatically improve our Sing Live feature, which allows our community members to sing together anytime from anywhere in the world,” said Parker Ranney, SVP of platform engineering and technology operations at Smule. “Agora's efficiency and scalability allowed us to connect the audience to the singers quickly and easily and reduce latency to nearly zero – which removes one of the most frustrating challenges of connecting virtually.”

In addition to live caroling, Smule will be launching more ways for users to celebrate the holidays. Smule users can record duets of classic holiday songs alongside legends like Elvis, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Mariah Carey, Sarah McLachlan, and more, to send as festive greetings to friends and family instead of traditional cards. Smule will also offer new holiday-themed AR styles and lenses to be used in video performances.

For more information, please visit https://www.agora.io/en/.

About Agora
Agora is the leading Real-time Engagement Platform as a Service (RTE PaaS) company. Agora’s mission is to make real-time engagement ubiquitous, allowing everyone to interact with anyone, in any application, anytime and anywhere. Agora’s platform provides developers with simple, flexible and powerful application programming interfaces, or APIs, to embed real-time video and voice engagement experiences into their applications.

About Smule
Smule, Inc. is a global leader in interactive music creation with a mission to connect the world through music. Every day, millions of people use Smule’s products, including social singing app Smule, AutoRap and Magic Piano to create original performances, collaborate with friends and join a global community of music lovers. For more information, visit smule.com or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.