Online retail giant Amazon is now making a foray into the world of virtual meetings and video conferencing. It’s a realm with major players such as GoToMeeting and Skype for Business, but Amazon believes Chime, which allows users to hold high-quality audio and video meetings, has unique features that will enable it to compete. Specifically, Chime has positioned itself as a “unified communication service” that makes meetings easier by having everything you need in one place.
These are a few of the features Chime offers:
1. Join a meeting with one click
Instead of forcing attendees to dial into meetings and enter passwords, Chime alerts users when the meeting starts and makes it possible to join with just one click or tap.
2. Easily view meeting roster
Chime makes it easy to see all of the attendee information you need, including a visual list of attendees, late-comers and no-shows. All users can see the meeting roster for full visibility.
3. Use on multiple devices
With smartphones and tablets more common than ever in offices around the world, a good virtual meeting tool needs to be mobile compatible. Luckily, Chime was built specifically for mobile use. Of course, it comes with apps that run on desktop devices as well. Chime has made it seamless for users to join a meeting from one device and switch to another one.
4. Share seamlessly
Chime allows meeting participants to share screens without having to request permission first. In the app’s chatrooms, users can work together and create a shared chat log. Meetings can also be recorded with one click.
5. Integrate with conference rooms
Amazon boasts that its calls deliver noise-cancelled audio and high-definition video that is compatible with most user devices and conference room video systems.
6. Make meeting appointments with Outlook
Chime appointments can be fully integrated into Microsoft Outlook by simply installing an add-on. Invites can be created in the same way as usual.
7. Create your own chatrooms
Similar to Slack, Chime allows users to create their own long-term chatrooms to converse with team members.
Amazon Chime is available in three tiers: Basic, Plus and Pro. The Basic edition is free and allows users to attend meetings, make one-on-one video calls and use chat features. The Plus edition costs $2.50 per user per month and includes user management of email domains, 1 GB of message storage per user and use of Amazon’s Active Directory service. The Pro edition of Chime costs $15.00 per user per month. For the extra cost, users will be able to host meetings for up to 100 people. Amazon is currently offering free 30-day trials of Pro.
