Amazon Chime : Simplified Collaboration Working

Specifications & Features 

You can use the Amazon Chime for audio and video calling, screen sharing and developers can integrate it directly with their applications using the Amazon Chime SDK.

Amazon Chime Voice Connector is a service which is used for and supports inbound calling, outbound calling, or both. 

1. Online Meetings

Amazon Chime can be used to schedule the meetings. You can add the meet@chime.aws to your meeting invite. It also gives the function to create the personalized meeting URLs for your online meetings. You can join these meetings with a simple tap and gives the optimized meeting experience for all meeting participants, whether co-located or distributed globally.

You can join the meeting with Alexa by instructing “Alexa, please start my meeting”

It provides the calling facility named as Chime Call me by adding your phone number in the web application and answering the incoming call to join meetings. The dial-in numbers are available in over 80 countries.

2. Participating in a meeting

You can use the Amazon Chime to share your screen without requesting permission and allow remote control of a screen share.

You can Monitor the participants’ activities in meetings with the visual roster like who has joined or declined the meeting, who is running late, who is currently speaking. Also you can know from where background noise is coming and can mute.

Amazon Chime supports video interaction with your meeting attendees with one click and also you can record your meetings.

3. Video Conferencing 

Amazon Chime supports Video conferencing where you get a high-quality audio and high-definition video conferencing for up to 16 people on your desktop, or 8 people on mobile devices. It’s developed with the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and H.323 video conferencing system. The meeting participants can join meetings by entering the meeting ID into the device console.

4. Team Collaboration

You can Chat with your colleagues directly, in a group, or in a chat room with Amazon Chime Chat. Also you can share attachments up to 50 MB, search contacts, and conversations.

You can make instant person-to-person voice and video calls (VoIP) from messaging to voice or video chat as needed. Also you can check the call history and send a message, or add a new contact.

You can know the presence of user status with Smart Presence where green means you’re available, and red means you’re busy. 

5. Business Calling 

You can place and receive phone calls and send and receive text messages directly from the Amazon Chime application to over 100 countries around the world and can use your desktop, mobile to answer the calls.

You can move from the mobile and desktop devices without interrupting your conversation with the Chime application between the active calls.

6. Security and Administration

Amazon Chime is the service from AWS where the security is taken care by Amazon and security capabilities built directly into the service.

It gives you the rights to select the regions for hosting the meetings from the Amazon Chime console. By default it automatically uses one of the selected regions to host each meeting.

The Amazon Chime uses the AES 256-bit encryption for all the Messages, voice, video, and content. You can receive your Call Detail Records for call and usage analytics and set up with your own Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) bucket.

The Amazon Chime Management APIs can be used to automate key tasks, such as create and manage accounts, invite users, enable chat bots, and manage chat rooms.

Install and start using Amazon Chime app

You can download and install an Amazon Chime client or use its web app.

1. Start the app and Sign in and enter your work email address.
2. Select Create a new Amazon account.
3. Input your name, work email address, set a strong password and select Create your Amazon account.
4. Allow the access for your Amazon account to be used with Amazon Chime.
5. Complete the Verification with an email from your Inbox for an email from Amazon Chime and choose Verify Me.
6. Now start using the Amazon Chime
7. Log in with your new account credentials and your devices will be synced.

Starting a video call

1. Users can make a Call by selecting the phone icon in the top right side of the chat window and switch from a Chat to a Call.
2. The recipient user receives the Call and can Answer to join.
3. Use the Start Webcam or Video option to enable your camera.
4. You can monitor the activities with Visual Roster by clicking << on the right side of the application.
5. Use the Meeting Chat to share ideas, files and images.

Hosting a meeting

Amazon Chime provides video, screen share, recording, and other features during Scheduled and Instant Meetings.

All the Call Controls are accessed under the More menu and in the Visual Roster. You can mute the participants by clicking on the Audio Icon, share your display or window by choosing Screen and making a selection, and use Meeting Chat to communicate with all attendees and share files.

Organizer Controls are found under the More menu and include record meeting, lock meeting, remove attendees, end the meeting for all attendees, and add presenters during event mode from the More menu to grant permissions to other attendees.

Joining a meeting without the Amazon Chime app

If you don’t have the Amazon Chime app installed on your device even though you can still join meetings in your web browser using the Chime Web Application.

References: Official Amazon Website and https://aws.amazon.com/chime