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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.

15 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 damaki · · Score: 3, Funny

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

      --
      Stupidity is the root of all evil.
    2. 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.

    3. 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.

  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.

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

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

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

      --
      Open Source Network Inventory for the masses! Kuwaiba
  6. 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: 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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      The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
  7. 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?

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

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

  9. 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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