Amazon Announces New ‘Chime’ Video Calling Service

Amazon chime header

In an effort to compete with services like WebEx, Skype for Business and GoToMeeting, Amazon has announced a new ‘Chime’ video calling service, with native applications for MacOS, iOS, Windows and Android, PCWorld is reporting. Although Chime’s infrastructure is based in the U.S., Gene Farrell, Amazon Web Services’ vice president of enterprise applications, said that the service can be accessed worldwide.

You can use Amazon Chime for online meetings, video conferencing, calls, chat, and to share content, both inside and outside your organization. Amazon Chime frees you to work productively from anywhere. 

Meetings start on time, and they’re easy to join. Meetings call you, and with a single tap or click, you can join or notify participants that you’re running late. A visual roster shows who is in the meeting and who is running late, and allows anyone to mute background noise. Amazon Chime automatically reconnects you if you get dropped. Crystal clear audio and HD video keep you focused on the discussion.

Chime is part of AWS’s portfolio of applications focused on helping business users with their work. That set of services started with the company’s WorkSpaces cloud virtual desktop as a service offering, and now includes AWS’s WorkDocs office suite, WorkMail email service and QuickSight business intelligence service.

The service will be available in three pricing tiers. Basic offers users one-on-one voice and video calls, plus group chat capabilities. Plus costs US$2.50 per user per month, and adds support for screen sharing and integration with identity management systems through SAML and Active Directory. Pro costs $15 per user per month, and lets users do all of the above, plus host meetings with up to 100 participants.

Amazon is also offering a free trial of all the Pro features for 30 days. Click here for more information.

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