What is Amazon Chime?
Amazon Chime is a new communication service by Amazon that supports video conferencing, calls, chat, and the sharing of content.
The product is available for devices running Windows and Mac OS X, and for the mobile operating systems Android and iOS, and as an online version that you can use device-independent.
Data is automatically synced regardless of device that you are using to access Amazon Chime.
Amazon users may sign in to the application using their account, or separate their Amazon shopping account from Amazon Chime if they prefer to do so.
It is furthermore possible to join meetings without an account by entering the meeting ID in the Amazon Chime application.
Amazon Chime is on AWS. Amazon notes that content -- messages, voice, video and other data -- is encrypted using AES 256-bit encryption.
Amazon Chime Features
As far as features are concerned, there are plenty available right now:
- Online Meetings -- Create or join online meetings from any supported device or the online version. The interface highlights the participants, and anyone has options to mute noise. Meetings can be locked so that only authenticated users may join.
- Video Conferencing -- You may join video conferences with up to 16 people on the desktop, and up to 8 people on mobile devices. High quality audio and high definition video is supported.
- Chat -- Message people inside and outside your organization. Chime displays notifications when you receive new chat messages, and you may chat with individuals or with groups. The chat history is searchable, and synced across devices automatically.
- Chat Rooms -- You may create chat rooms in Amazon Chime to bring people together. This may be a chat room for a project group for instance. File sharing is supported, and the chat history is searchable and available on all devices as well.
- File Sharing -- You may use Chime to attach files to meetings, chats, or chat rooms.
- Microsoft Active Directory -- Chime supports Microsoft Active Directory to authenticate users. This means that employees may sign in using company usernames and passwords, and that policies for user credentials apply to Amazon Chime as well.
- Administration -- Chime offers an administration console that reveals usage reports, allows admins to add or remove users from subscriptions, and run support related tasks such as assigning meeting Pins.
Chime apps are supported on the following operating systems officially:
- Microsoft Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10
- Apple Mac OS X, version 10.10 and above
- Apple iOS, version 8.0 and above
- Android, version 5.0 and above
Check out the getting started help page for information on making your first steps in Chime.
Amazon Chime Pricing
Amazon Chime offers three different plans. The Basic plan is free, while Plus and Pro are both subscription based.
| Edition | Basic | Plus | Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calls & meetings | |||
| 1:1 Video calls | X | X | X |
| 1:1 Voice calls | X | X | X |
| Outlook plugin | X | X | X |
| Screen sharing | X | X | |
| Remote Desktop Control | X | X | |
| Schedule and host meetings (attendees are always free) | X | ||
| Record meetings | X | ||
| Personalized meeting URLs | X | ||
| Conference room video systems | X | ||
| Join meetings using a standard phone line* | |||
| Maximum attendees | 2 | 2 | 100 |
| Chat | |||
| 1:1 Chat | Â X | Â X | Â X |
| Chat rooms | Â X | Â X | Â X |
| IT Administration | |||
| User management | Â X | Â X | |
| Usage reports | Â X | Â X | |
| Active Directory integration | Â X | Â X | |
| Message history | 30 days | Up to 1GB/user | Up to 1GB/user |
The free plan is limited to one on one chats, voice calls and video calls, and the message history is only kept for a maximum of 30 days.
Amazon Chime Plus is available for $2.50 per month per user. It adds screen sharing and remote desktop control to Chime, IT administrative features, and up to 1 Gigabyte of storage for a user's message history.
Amazon Chime Pro can be tried for free for 30 days. Chime users may then subscribe to Plus or Pro plans, or use the free Basic plan instead.
Closing Words
Is Amazon Chime a Skype competitor? It surely looks like it is. There is a free version that should be sufficient for many home use scenarios, and two subscription versions for corporations who require more functionality.
Now You: What is your initial opinion of Amazon Chime?
Martin, I would appreciate that you do not censor this post, as it’s informative writing.
Onur, there is a misleading statement “[…] GIFs are animated images …”. No, obviously you don’t seem to have take much notice of what you were told back in March regarding; Graphics Interchange Format (GIF).
For example, https://www.ghacks.net/2023/03/31/whats-gif-explanation-and-how-to-use-it/#comment-4562919 (if you had read my replies within that thread, you might have learnt something useful). I even mentioned, “GIF intrinsically supports animated images (GIF89a)”.
You linked to said article, [Related: …] within this article, but have somehow failed to take onboard what support you were given by several more knowledgeable people.
If you used AI to help write this article, it has failed miserably.
AI is stupid, and it will not get any better if we really know how this all works. Prove me wrong.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IYl1sTIOHI
Martin, [#comment-4569908] is only meant to be in: [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/07/09/how-to-send-gifs-on-iphone-two-different-ways/]. Whereas it appears duplicated in several recent random low-quality non relevant articles.
Obviously it [#comment-4569908] was posted: 9 July 2023. Long before this thread even existed… your database is falling over. Those comments are supposed to have unique ID values. It shouldn’t be possible to duplicate the post ID, if the database had referential integrity.
Don’t tell me!
Ghacks wants the state to step in for STATE-MANDATED associations to save jobs!!!
Bring in the dictatorship!!!
And screw Rreedom of Association – too radical for Ghacks maybe
GateKeeper ?
That’s called “appointing” businesses to do the state’s dirty work!!!!!
But the article says itself that those appointed were not happy – implying they had not choice!!!!!!
@The Dark Lady,
@KeZa,
@Database failure,
@Howard Pearce,
@Howard Allan Pearce,
Note: I replaced the quoted URI scheme: https:// with “>>” and posted.
The current ghacks.net is owned by “Softonic International S.A.” (sold by Martin in October 2019), and due to the fate of M&A, ghacks.net has changed in quality.
>> ghacks.net/2023/09/02/microsoft-is-removing-wordpad-from-windows/#comment-4573130
Many Authors of bloggers and advertisers certified by Softonic have joined the site, and the site is full of articles aimed at advertising and clickbait.
>> ghacks.net/2023/08/31/in-windows-11-the-line-between-legitimate-and-adware-becomes-increasingly-blurred/#comment-4573117
As it stands, except for articles by Martin Brinkmann, Mike Turcotte, and Ashwin, they are low quality, unhelpful, and even vicious. It is better not to read those articles.
How to display only articles by a specific author:
Added line to My filters in uBlock Origin: ghacks.net##.hentry,.home-posts,.home-category-post:not(:has-text(/Martin Brinkmann|Mike Turcotte|Ashwin/))
>> ghacks.net/2023/09/01/windows-11-development-overview-of-the-august-2023-changes/#comment-4573033
By the way, if you use an RSS reader, you can track exactly where your comments are (I’m an iPad user, so I use “Feedly Classic”, but for Windows I prefer the desktop app “RSS Guard”).
RSS Guard: Feed reader which supports RSS/ATOM/JSON and many web-based feed services.
>> github.com/martinrotter/rssguard#readme
We all live in digital surveillance glass houses under scrutiny of evil people because of people like Musk. It’s only fair that he takes his turn.
“Operating systems will be required to let the user choose the browser, virtual assistant and search engine of their choice. Microsoft cannot force users to use Bing or Edge. Apple will have to open up its iOS operating system to allow third-party app stores, aka allow sideloading of apps. Google, on the other hand, will need to provide users with the ability to uninstall preloaded apps (bloatware) from Android devices. Online services will need to allow users to unsubscribe from their platform easily. Gatekeepers need to provide interoperability with third-parties that offer similar services.”
Wonderful ! Let’s hope they’ll comply with that law more than they are doing with the GDPR.