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Skype Gets A New Competitor: Amazon Announces Chime (geekwire.com)

Posted by msmash on from the another-app-for-that dept.

Amazon has released new service to make voice and video calls and share screen. Called Chime, the service is aimed at business users. It directly competes with well-known players such as Skype, Google Hangouts, GoToMeeting, Zoom, and Cisco's WebEx, among others. From a report: Amazon Web Services today unveiled Chime, a new service that it says takes the "frustration out of meetings" by delivering video, voice, chat, and screen sharing. Instead of forcing participants to call one another on a dedicated line, Amazon Chime automatically calls all participants at the start of a meeting, so "joining a meeting is as easy as clicking a button in the app, no PIN required," the company said in a press release. Chime also shows a visual roster of participants, and allows participants to pinpoint who exactly on the call is creating annoying background noise.

54 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. But the question... by loranger · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...does it run well on all operating systems?

    1. Re:But the question... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      as Amazon appears to have forgotten Linux then it obviously does not run well on all OS's

      There is a clear opportunity for a really cross platform system given that MS is making Skype just about useless if not run on Windows.
      It is a shame that this isn't totally free.

    2. Re:But the question... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      From Amazon's web site:

      "Amazon Chime offers rich apps for iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac"

      No mention of Linux.

    3. Re:But the question... by damaki · · Score: 3, Funny

      How could it be any worse than Skype? I've seen it run badly on pretty much every supported OS.

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      Stupidity is the root of all evil.
    4. Re:But the question... by loranger · · Score: 2

      No mention of Linux.

      Unless 99% of the OS are supported, it's useless for my company then (and lots of company I know). We're in 2017 for god's sake, people should start to understand that not all the people do run Windows or iOS. Especially for a conf-call stuff, where you need to find the common denominator suitable for every callers.

    5. Re:But the question... by TFlan91 · · Score: 1

      "common denominator suitable for every callers"

      You just set the bar so god damn low...

    6. Re:But the question... by Dakiraun · · Score: 2

      Very much agreed. In my department 50% of the machines are Linux, 20% Apple and the rest Windows. Every time a vendor wants to do something like a webex we have to fire up a virtual Windows environment for them to utilise, and that's ridiculous. In 2017, being OS-agnostic should be the default for any company producing software.

    7. Re: But the question... by buchanmilne · · Score: 1

      "Every time a vendor wants to do something like a webex we have to fire up a virtual Windows environment for them to utilise, and that's ridiculous."

      Webex runs on Linux. More poorly than on Windows, but it runs and I was able to screen share on one occasion when I tried it.

    8. Re:But the question... by IGnatius+T+Foobar · · Score: 1

      GoToMeeting now has a version that runs inside-the-browser on all operating systems (yes including Linux).

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    9. Re: But the question... by loranger · · Score: 1

      Webex runs on Linux. More poorly than on Windows, but it runs and I was able to screen share on one occasion when I tried it.

      Depends on your definition of "runs on Linux". I managed to get the screen-share running (ugly I must say), after a long and epic battle with my browser. But to make the sound work, AFAIR you had to "manually" install of dozen of old/unsupported x86 libs; the operation was heading towards a maintenance disaster so I did not dare to complete it. Anyway, for sound, I usually use a plain-old-physical-phone, the sound quality is usually better.

    10. Re: But the question... by Dakiraun · · Score: 1

      Must be fairly recent then - I recall it used to run on it in the past, then stopped supporting it for years. I've not had to do a webex for probably a couple years now - the most common one vendors use for the appliances I support tends to be GoToMeeting. Will have to test out WebEx and see how it's functioning with our current Linux systems.

    11. Re: But the question... by buchanmilne · · Score: 1

      "But to make the sound work, AFAIR you had to "manually" install of dozen of old/unsupported x86 libs;"

      But this is really a Java problem, and not a Webex problem per se, and problems/work-arounds would heavily depend on which Java run-time your browser launches for WebStart apps and whether you have matching sound plugins installed or not.

      Of course, recent Firefox is probably going to break WebStart and all the enterprise-y apps they don't care about but we need. Guess some people will have to dump Firefox to get NPAPI support back.

    12. Re: But the question... by loranger · · Score: 1

      But this is really a Java problem, and not a Webex problem per se, [...]

      Agreed, but random Joe does not give a shit whether the application is not running because it's using a broken virtual environnement or if it's the own application fault. If you are not able to reliably run an application using java web-start, then don't use java web-start. Use a native application, browser plugins, or whatever else.

    13. Re:But the question... by WallyL · · Score: 1
      • Can display a minimum of 400x400 (arbitrary size) video
      • Can access http on port 80
      • Has a webcam

      Was that so hard?

    14. Re: But the question... by Guybrush_T · · Score: 1

      That's the application's fault for not migrating to HTML5 and sticking to Java. Seriously, Java ?

    15. Re:But the question... by Xenographic · · Score: 1

      > does it run well on all operating systems?

      They're only trying to compete with Skype here....

    16. Re:But the question... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      There's you're 99%

      There's you are 99%?

    17. Re:But the question... by nasch · · Score: 1

      Last time I tried Skype on Linux it was completely broken.

  2. and... no Linux client by Dakiraun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So... just as useless as all the other offerings.

    1. Re:and... no Linux client by amiga3D · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Considering the overwhelming majority of business users have windows for an OS I'd say it's useful for their target audience.

    2. Re: and... no Linux client by mmell · · Score: 1
      Agreed. In my personal experience, IBM is the only enterprise I've seen which isn't totally dependent on MS-Windows for all its office desktops. Most that I've seen are actively opposed to Linux desktops because Microsoft (until recently, I think?) tend to break interoperability with Linux on a regular basis. MS-Exchange was often their favorite tool to break. SharePoint and Microsoft Talk were two others which come to mind. Half the places I've worked at specifically told me not to install Linux on my issued desktop for exactly that reason. Others simply mentioned that if anything went wrong (like missing an email because my mail client wasn't Outlook) it was totally my problem.

      Microsoft still owns the front office environment, and they've had Skype for Business out there and running for some time now. I don't see Amazon getting a whole lot of traction on this.

    3. Re:and... no Linux client by pecosdave · · Score: 1

      Unless you use Java, HTML5 or some other cross platform framework.

      Or make an all-dependencies included package, which can be done on Linux just like it's done on Mac OS. The NIX package manager is supposed to address this sort of thing.

      When you get into the Linux world as long as your software is written properly there's a lot less supporting that has to be done, the users tend to be more advanced or are working under someone who is. As long as the stuff isn't written poorly or focused on one distro only (really - why do companies release RPM's to appease Linux people? RedHat? Really?) it should be smooth sailing.

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  3. Subject by TFlan91 · · Score: 1

    I will take a serious look to see if it can really improve GTM/JoinMe/etc crap services.

    GTM is by far the worst offender, every version remains fully intact on your machine until you find and manually delete it. And they have a release schedule that makes Chrome look good.

    Only issue is the pricing. Chime pricing seems awkward.

  4. Don't auto-call me... by HockeyPuck · · Score: 1

    If I have a noon meeting, don't call me at the start of the meeting... All too often I've got back2back meetings and not everyone ends their meetings a few minutes short of the hour. So we need a few minutes for a bio break before the next meeting....

    1. Re:Don't auto-call me... by zlives · · Score: 1

      nah i think they are talking about a one click app that calls you, just like webex.

  5. Re:Dial in no problemo by loranger · · Score: 1

    I prefer a phone line for conferencing vs IP anyhow, as it reduces latency [...]

    The funny thing is that both are carried more or less the same way by the telcos nowadays.

  6. Spyware by Nocturrne · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It will be spyware just like skype. Don't install this on any machine near you.

  7. Re:amazon alexa by amiga3D · · Score: 2

    This is for business users. VOIP chat has been around for a while now so it shouldn't be hard to get Echo to do that but it's not going to have the features business users are looking for.

  8. Crap gets a new competitor: another horrible compa by Doloresanto · · Score: 1

    This.

  9. Crap gets a new competitor: by Doloresanto · · Score: 1

    another horrible company announces Toot.

  10. Not to be confused with... by UberVegeta · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Chyme

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  11. WebRTC turns 5 by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 5, Informative

    https://webrtc.org/ "WebRTC is a free, open project that provides browsers and mobile applications with Real-Time Communications (RTC) capabilities via simple APIs. The WebRTC components have been optimized to best serve this purpose."

    You can host it yourself, internal, inside of your firewall if you're that security paranoid.

    There are also solutions hosted by other people if you don't want to deal with that:

    https://appear.in/

    https://opentokrtc.com/

    https://talky.io/

    1. Re:WebRTC turns 5 by snookiex · · Score: 2

      Don't forget Jitsi, although screen sharing is still quite buggy.

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  12. Great, another AppData directory bomb by pecosdave · · Score: 2

    I don't know for a fact that it runs in AppData, but the fact we lock it down to keep crypto lockers from running and the fact GoTo Meeting throws a screaming fit demanding it be not locked down AND it runs from randomized directories to prevent us from making an allowance tells me that Amazon is likely to be just as big of a pain in the ass.

    I hope Amazon has learned some good practice about writing programs that can be installed as a system program OR be installed as a user program like Chrome, not as a user program or nothing like the Amazon music player (or Goto Meeting, or Spotify).

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    1. Re:Great, another AppData directory bomb by pecosdave · · Score: 1

      Looked closer. Haven't installed it but it requires a download.

      STRIKE 1

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    2. Re:Great, another AppData directory bomb by pecosdave · · Score: 1

      Looks like there isn't a test meeting to join. Pretty much all the other guys have a test meeting. I want to see if I have to do an install of anything just to join, which is the most important thing to me. My company works with many others, we have standardized on a product, but that doesn't mean I don't have to consider every other product out there since we work with so many other companies and they all want to do their own thing. You've probably gathered GoTo Meeting with its absolute demand to run in a randomized AppData directory folder and the zero backwards compatibility between versions is a thorn in my side.

      I don't know if there's a strike from a joining perspective or not since there is no obvious test meeting.

      Ball 1

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    3. Re:Great, another AppData directory bomb by pecosdave · · Score: 5, Informative

      So, I downloaded the client.

      I logged in as my test domain user - his name is Norm L. User. I right-clicked the installer exe - no there wasn't an MSI even in this day and age - and chose "Run as Administrator" which is exactly what I'm going to have to do for one off user installs.

      Without asking it installed directly into my administrator accounts AppData directory.

      STRIKE 3!!!!

      This program is crap from a corporate perspective.

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    4. Re:Great, another AppData directory bomb by pecosdave · · Score: 1

      There's no reasonable excuse not to support Linux on something like this.

      Release two versions - first and up front release a Nix style package, which for all intents and purposes can be compared to a Mac .dmg file with all dependencies included. Or more accurately an APK for a desktop since they already support a version of Linux by having an Android version. With a Mac, Android, and iOS version out there already the work is done - can you say easy port?

      Then for the braver types and for the distro makers release a tar.gz file with the crap in it. It doesn't matter if you release the source code or not, though of course I would prefer they did. If you make a straight up binary version someone is going to make an RPM of it and someone else is going to make a .deb - consider the work done. The nice thing about the open-source community, they'll do the work for you for free if you don't actively stop them. Look at the way nVidia drivers are handled and the way Oracle Java has distro side packages that are dedicated to downloading and installing the binaries in a way that is both easy and compliant with overbearing restrictions.

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    5. Re:Great, another AppData directory bomb by pecosdave · · Score: 1

      Just when I thought it couldn't get much worse:

      I logged into the machine with the same domain admin account I used to run the installer. I went to Add/Remove programs - I got a message that I didn't have the rights to uninstall it. I am an administrator of both the local machine and the domain.

      I browsed into the AppData directory (which I don't expect the average user who has admin to their own stuff to understand) I found an uninstaller and I ran it. That worked. I then manually deleted the directories that were left.

      This has a ways to go before I accept it as good corporate software. It's most certainly not a good software citizen.

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    6. Re:Great, another AppData directory bomb by pecosdave · · Score: 1

      If they had a test button I could have tested that out for myself. I'm okay with an in-browser app - as long as it isn't Silverlight or something else OS limited.

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    7. Re:Great, another AppData directory bomb by pecosdave · · Score: 1

      DropBox is banned in our organization for this and other reasons. Turns out it's more insecure than it gets credit for, Slashdot has covered that a few times and I know people who've personally been able to prove data was leaking from there. I no longer have anything in my personal Dropbox account.

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    8. Re: Great, another AppData directory bomb by pecosdave · · Score: 1

      Knowing my shit is why users running crap from there is banned. Per user programs aren't supposed to exist in a controlled corporate environment.

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    9. Re: Great, another AppData directory bomb by pecosdave · · Score: 1

      So you tell me I'm doing it wrong then tell me the right way to do it is to keep doing what I'm doing? Making rules for what can and can't be done with the AppData directory?

      With or without AppLocker a business friendly application should have the option to install to the system - which is what I as an administrator with a fleet of computers under my control prefer - it's easier to manage with the K1000 system - or as a user app in case I decide to play it loose in that department. Firefox works that way, Chrome works that way, I have seen video games that ask me if I want to install for just my account or the whole system.

      Making something AppData only smells horribly of sneakiness and subterfuge meant to take advantage of ignorant system managers, all the way from a family computer up to less informed enterprise admins.

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  13. I will sign this contract immediately.... by SethJohnson · · Score: 1
    ... just to get this single feature--

    allows participants to pinpoint who exactly on the call is creating annoying background noise.

    Good god. I cannot count the times I've heard "please mute your phones" shouted over a conference call.

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    1. Re:I will sign this contract immediately.... by kwerle · · Score: 2

      What software are you using that *doesn't* already provide this?

  14. Expensive! by Guillermito · · Score: 5, Informative

    Looks like it costs $15 per user per month for for any plan that allows calls with more than 2 participants. For comparison, I believe Google Suite is $5 per user, and includes email, calendar and an office suite apart from the conferencing software. Or if you want just video calls I think hangouts is free for up to 5 participants. Hangouts and Skype are not nearly perfect, but most of the time they are good enough. How much better this has to be to justify paying that steep price?

  15. PSTN Integration? by realperseus · · Score: 1

    This will be Big, and a true competitor to Skype if PSTN integration is offered.

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  16. Killer features? by MMC+Monster · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You want killer features for a conference calling app?

    1 - Highlight on your screen all the people who are currently talking.
    2 - Automatic transcription of calls with the individuals talking labeled.
    3 - Ability to pass along a 'talking now' and 'request talking' tokens so that someone can "raise their hand" while someone else is talking. Also the ability to cede the talking now token to one of the other people talking (for when a lot of people are on a conference call)

    Or do current apps have all of this?

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    1. Re:Killer features? by jason777 · · Score: 1

      my company used webex for training which does all of this

  17. Android VM? by h4ck7h3p14n37 · · Score: 1

    Surely you could run Chime in an Android VM on a Linux host?

  18. Chyme by wasteoid · · Score: 1

    If the service stinks, it might start being referred to as Chyme.

  19. Re:Dial in no problemo by zlives · · Score: 1

    the design QOS wise is not the same, or i should say, should not be the same.

  20. Heavy breathers, typists, and other noise makers by mccrew · · Score: 1

    From TFA: "and allows participants to pinpoint who exactly on the call is creating annoying background noise."

    Ding! Ding! We have a winner!

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  21. Thanksfully there is a free alternative in Ring.cx by marclijour · · Score: 1

    Ring.cx is a videochat app that puts user privacy and freedom 1st place. By design, there is no big brother, no middleman, no trust problem. Ring leverages the same architecture as bittorrent (DHT), a decentralized network to connect peers. From there, all communication is encrypted peer-to-peer. Best of all, it's free software, backed up by the Free Software Foundation: https://directory.fsf.org/wiki... More at https://ring.cx/ Check the team's recent talk at FOSDEM: http://ftp.fau.de/fosdem/2017/...