14 DAY TRIAL // Amazon is known for having its fingers dipped in many pies, and this time they’re taking on the world with a video conferencing tool called Chime.
Launched today, Chime will compete with Skype for Business and WebEx, putting Amazon on the map for yet another business.
“It’s pretty hard to find people who actually like the technology they use for meetings today. Most meeting applications or services are hard to use, deliver bad audio and video, require constant switching between multiple tools to do everything they want, and are way too expensive. Amazon Chime delivers frustration-free meetings, allowing users to be productive from anywhere. And with no ongoing maintenance or management fees, Amazon Chime is a great choice for companies that are looking for a solution to meetings that their employees will love to use,” reads a statement signed by Gene Farrell, Amazon Web Services Vice President for Enterprise Applications.
Provided by Amazon Web Services, Chime is an online meeting tool that allows users to switch between multiple platforms - Mac, Windows, iOs or Android - for video conferences, screen sharing, file sharing or chatting.
Several plans for different types of businesses
There are several plans you can pick from for Chime. One costs $2.5 per month per user for a plan that includes screen sharing and using a corporate directory, while another costs $15 per month per user for a full plan that includes video meeting for up to 100 people, which is a massive number. By comparison, the basic plan allows video calls between two people, while the chat feature is free.
Each meeting has a virtual roster showing who joined and who’s running late, which is a great way to keep track of everyone. Chime can mute background noise, which is something we’ve also seen in other tools such as Skype, and can also reconnect you automatically if the Internet connection fails for one reason or another.
All communications are encrypted, while the chat history isn’t stored. In short, Chime comes with all the security features usually given by Amazon Web Services.