Amazon Chime Review | Best Alternative To Zoom

Amazon Chime Review

Hey Readers, FSD is back today with an exciting SaaS product to review. It is a unique product and is an integral part of AWS by Amazon. This is a Product created by Amazon to compete with products like Zoom and other Video Conferencing apps. We are talking about The Amazon Chime. This fantastic chat app is what you can buy for $3.

The service is very versatile and has very high quality, and we say this with experience. The Audio quality of Chime is on par with actual telecommunication providers, and the video quality is very close to a face-to-face conversation. Let’s dive deep into the amazon chime review and discuss how it is the best alternative to zoom.

Chime vs Zoom Pricing

Amazon Chime has a very catchy slogan in which they ask the audience, “What can you buy for 3 dollars”. Their pricing is very competitive and almost like they are trying to take over the sub-industry of video conferencing. They even allow you to try the application for free for a month. Also, when you buy Amazon Chimes’ subscription, only the meeting initiator will be charged, and recipients who join will not be charged at all.

When talking about Amazon Chime Vs Zoom, Chime has very competitive pricing. Just like zoom, they offer a Basic freemium plan for personal users, A very inexpensive Plus plan that includes screen sharing for team co-ordinations just for $2.5. Finally, their Pro plan allows you to host up to 100 people meetings only for $3 per meeting up to $15 max.

The most critical point is that whenever you host a meeting with the pro plan, you will be charged $3 for that meeting, so if you only had two sessions in that month, you will only be charged $6. 

This makes it the best alternative to zoom for most users cause now, if you even have daily meetings, you will be charged $3 per meeting for up to a max of $15. This gives you up to 5 charged sessions per day. And what about the rest? Well, they are free, and only those who hosted the meetings get charged, while the rest of the people who only attended the conference can do that for free.

Amazon Chime Features

Chime is a service mainly for AWS. If your website is hosted on AWS, you can integrate Chime into your website through the AWS platform. Let’s move into observing the features of the Amazon Chime service.

Chime Online Chat

Like any other chat feature, the Chime Online chat is simple but feels smooth and frictionless. Creating favorites, arranging chats, Emojis, one on 1, and group chats are all old basic features. They allow up to a 50 MB file transfer, which can help transfer presentations, images, and even small videos. You can take control of your privacy by clicking on your username and email and select the desired status between Available or Busy.

They have an interesting and clear way to display a user’s status. A star shows your favorite chats, a green dot indicates the person is available to chat with Amazon Chime, a green mobile icon means they have a mobile device active, they may not have the chime app. Still, you can send them an invitation. Chime will send them a push notification on their smartphone.

The grey dot shows that the person hasn’t used Chime for six days; a grey lock means a person has his privacy enabled, while the red dot represents a person who is not available for a chat or meeting and is busy on another call. Finally, the yellow dot shows that the user is a desktop idol, meaning they have their Chime app-enabled but are not using it.

Chime Video Meetings

Amazon Chime has a very HD Video Meeting functionality. The biggest concern for people is that Amazon may automatically turn on their webcam without permission, but don’t worry, it won’t happen. You have control of your webcam. It only opens when you turn it on. The Video and Audio quality is impressive on Chime. You can have up to 16 video tiles which are filled on a first-come basis. 

You can see on the right all the users who are sharing their videos with you. The best part is that you don’t have to share your video while looking at others’. To disable your video, click the video icon on the lower right corner of your video tile, and to enable it back, click the enable video button on your tile. If only two people are in the meeting, you can switch to a picture, and even here, you can turn off your video by going to settings and turning off the show preview toggle.

You can save bandwidth by selecting an attendees tile and pausing their video, and they won’t even know you did. To play their video back, click their tile again. If you want to create more space for screen sharing, click the popup icon next to the close icon, and to close the video bar altogether, click close.

Join Meeting without Chime

This is an exceptional feature. Now you can even call people to your chime meetings who don’t have a Chime account. You can join via the dial-in number, the meeting ID, or the invite link. The link will open a separate browser and will demand the credentials you received from the host. If you have an amazon account, you can use it to sign in. 

You can choose to use your computer’s mic and cam, but you have to allow permission to your browser, and then you will be added to the meeting. You can even choose to call a phone number to join a meeting on the browser, and you can even do this with a meeting pin.

Amazon Chime SDK

This is a vital feature. Amazon Chime has an SDK for developers to customize the user experience of their websites for their clients using the Amazon Chime features. You can use this SDK with any technology you prefer and develop your apps with Chime features in them. 

You can use this SDK to develop Android/iOS apps, web apps and even integrate them into your websites. You can customize all the UI/UX features in your app. All the Amazon Chime functionality can be added to your application. If you are not a developer, you can hire a mobile app solution for your work.

Install and Create Chime account

The start of the Amazon Chime account is straightforward. Just create your AWS account, choose a plan and enter a payment method. Selected payment methods will be used for any AWS services you use. But to use the Chime, you need to create separate users for the whole team and provide that team the permission to read and use Chime services.

Once you create the users and grant users full access to administer the Chime account, log out, and sign in as the Chime admin. Now search for the Chime service; this will take you to the Chime console. Here you can add and remove users, adjust permissions, view meeting statistics. 

By clicking create, Chime will make your team members accounts. The user list will be blank, and you have to invite team members by their email addresses. When you claim a domain, your team account will convert to your Enterprise account. To claim a domain, click the “claim a domain” button. Enter the domain name and add the provided TXT record in your domain DNS records.

Hopefully, the debate of amazon chime vs zoom can be resolved through this in-depth feature analysis and thorough review of amazon chime. It can safely be said that for most midcap enterprises, amazon chime is the best alternative to the zoom app, considering their competitive pricing, smooth integration into the workflow, and many other secondary factors.

How FSD Can Help

Wow, this was a fascinating blog post about Amazon Chime Review, even for us. The level of depth and features you receive from Amazon Chime for just $3 per meeting is impressive. As we are Digital Service Providers, what intrigued us the most was the Amazon Chime SDK and web integration.

Not everyone has enough time to create their application or customize an SDK. This is a job more suited for a developer, and that’s where FSD Solutions can help you with our 17 years of experience and expertise in design and development. If you are a business owner, you know how much time it takes to grow your business, and you enjoy what you do.

So will you learn how to code and integrate this application into your business website or application? It would be more beneficial for you to hire a professional company to develop the Amazon Chime-based User interface and experience for the clients. At the same time, you focus on what you love to do. Grow your Business and Engage with your audience.