Amazon recently released its Skype competitor christened “Amazon Chime“, which is meant to be a group calling, messaging, and collaboration tool for businesses, as well as just a simple video call application for the masses. It does this, with a three tier plan system, that divides the available features into different levels. In the “Amazon Chime Basic” arrangement, all you get is 1:1 voice, and video calling. It additionally concedes you access to utilizing the talk. At its most astounding level (Amazon Chime Pro), the application offers propelled elements, for example, custom meeting URLs, screen sharing capacities, booking, and facilitating gatherings, and notwithstanding recording gatherings. This, for up to 100 individuals, at a moderately low cost of $15 per client, every month. Thus, in case you’re pondering which one to utilize,  we have a detailed comparison of both the Amazon Chime, and Skype

Amazon Chime vs Skype: Feature Breakdown

1. Calling Features

Both the Amazon Chime, and Skype, offer some truly extraordinary calling highlights. Including contacts is simple in Amazon Chime, however less in Skype (at any rate, I’ve never observed Skype to be especially great at this). Once you’ve included your contacts, calling them is simple on both Amazon Chime, and Skype, and both the services have equally good audio quality, so you can’t turn out badly with either decision. Be that as it may, there is one place where Skype leaves Amazon Chime in the clean: calling telephone numbers. It’s not generally guaranteed, that the individual you have to contact is on an indistinguishable application from you are, which is the place Skype’s competitively priced calling rates really knock it out of the park.

When it comes to video calls, both the Amazon Chime, and Skype are good performers. The quality of video calls are as good and stable. It’s important to note that if you’re using Ring on an unstable connection, it will trash to launch the video. However, you will still be able to connect on voice call.

Note: Amazon Chime only offers 1:1 audio, and video calling in the “Amazon Chime Basic” plan. For more capabilities, you will need to subscribe to the “Amazon Chime Plus”, “Amazon Chime Pro” plans.

2. Screen Sharing

Both the Amazon Chime, and Skype offer screen sharing support. Notwithstanding, while Skype offers the element for nothing, Amazon Chime requires the “Plus” plan  ($2.50 per client/month) keeping in mind the end goal to utilize the screen sharing component. All things considered, screen sharing in Amazon Chime seems to be available more effectively than on Skype. While you’re in a call with somebody, you can essentially click on the “Screen” alternative, and pick between “Share Screen”, and “Share Window”.

In Amazon Chime, you can even request to control the other user’s screen remotely. This will definitely come in near in meetings, and video calls where you’re trying to make plans, etc. Meanwhile, even though Skype lets Screen Sharing for free, you can subscribe to one of the paid plans for Skype for Business, to be able to remotely control another user’s screen.

3. Record Meetings

Another element that Amazon Chime, and Skype for Business, both offer, is the capacity to record whole gatherings. The record meetings feature in Amazon Chime allows users to record the audio of the meeting, but not the video.. In this way, in the event that you were sharing a screen, and dealing with an archive together, that won’t be recorded; notwithstanding, the sound of the meeting will. This can make transcripts of gatherings, impart the sound to individuals who couldn’t go to the meeting, so they might be informed about everything that was talked about, and the sky is the limit from there.

To become this feature in Skype, you will have to subscribe to one of the “Skype for Business” plans, which is not a great deal, because the recording feature that Amazon Chime provides a part of the “Amazon Chime Pro plan”, which will rate you almost $15 per month, per user. Also, Skype for Business can record audio, as well as video, something that Amazon Chime can’t do (yet).

4.Share Documents and Media

Both Skype, and Amazon Chime arise with the capability to share documents, and media. Although, being focused towards both consumers, and enterprises, one would expect Amazon Chime to have more options for sharing documents, and media. However, as it turns out, Skype offers a lot more flexibility when it comes to they types of files you can send. With Skype, you can send documents, and images, as well as contacts, location, and video messages. However, Amazon Chime only lets users send documents, or media (such as images).

This is a unhappy oversight, in my view, because sharing locations, and contacts can be quite useful in a software aimed at solving the problems of remote meetings in large multinational companies.

5. Instant and Scheduled Meetings

Since Amazon Chime is expected primarily at enterprises, it includes a host of powerful meeting features; something that is present in Skype for Business, as well. However, personally, I find the intuitive way in which Amazon Chime works, much better than Skype.

With the “Amazon Chime Pro” plan, you can easily set up instant, or scheduled meetings. The host can simply click on “Meetings”, and select “Start an Instant Meeting“, or “Schedule a Meeting”. Users can even click on “Join a Meeting“, if they want to join a meeting being hosted by someone else.

Instant Meetings start at the very same moment. Select the people you need to invite, and the meeting starts off. Invites get notifications that they’re invited to a meeting, and they can join, decline, or send a message if they’re running late.

Booked Meetings, then again, are made by making a meeting in your preferred schedule utilization, and including invitees. Amazon Chime additionally gives you some vital data that you need to include the depiction for the meeting, so the invitees can go to it. This data contains different techniques to interface with the meeting, and each invitee can associate whichever way they favor

Amazon Chime provides very clear instructions about how to create a scheduled meeting, so you don’t really have to worry about anything, except following the instructions.

Amazon Chime vs Skype: Platform Availability

Platform Availability is a very vital factor when it arises to applications that provides online meeting features. After all, not every one in a company will be using the similar platform, which is why it’s important to support at least the most popular platforms – another area where Skype fares much better than Amazon Chime.

• Amazon Chime is available onAndroid, iOS, Windows, and macOS. It can also be used in the browser itself, if need be.
• Skype, on the other hand, is available onAndroid, iOS, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, Windows, macOS, and Linux. Plus, it can be used on a browser, as well.

Amazon Chime vs Skype: Pricing and Plans

Both Skype, and Amazon Chime arises with three different tiers, that can be used depending on your needs. The pricing, and features vary massively between the two, and both of them provide some great features. Here’s a breakdown of the different plans available in Amazon Chime, and Skype for Business:

1. Amazon Chime

Amazon Chime offers 3 plan options for you to choose from:

• Amazon Chime Basic (Free): This is the free tier of the Amazon Chime service, and will only let you make1:1 audio, and video calls. You will also get access to chats, and chat rooms on all your devices
• Amazon Chime Plus ($2.50 per user, per month): The Amazon Chime Plus plan comes with all the features of Amazon Chime Basic, along withsupport for screen sharing, and a host of IT management tools.
• Amazon Chime Pro ($15 per user, per month): The highest tier in the Amazon Chime service, this plan offers all the features of Amazon Chime Plus, and adds the ability torecord meetings, get personalized meeting URLs, and the ability to join meetings with a standard phone line.

2. Skype for Business

Skype is divided into two different groups: Skype, and Skype for Business. Skype is free to use, and doesn’t need any subscription. However, Skype for Business has two tiers:

• Office 365 Business Essentials ($5 per user per month): This is the most reasonable tier of the two, and offersaudio, HD video, and web conferencing, along with the capability to share your presentations, and transfer control to other members, schedule meetings, and do a lot more.
• Office 365 Business Premium ($12.50 per user, per month): This tier offers everything that the Business Essentials plan offers, along with features like File Sharing, and storage up to 1GB per user. It also includes advanced meeting options like polls, and Q&As, which can definitely add a lot to your online meetings.

Amazon Chime vs Skype: Use Cases

Both the Amazon Chime, and Skype for Business, are primarily voice, and video conferencing applications that aim to help users run their business effectively. Skype has the benefit over Amazon Chime, in that it has been in the market pretty long, plus it provides some killer features. However, Amazon Chime is no slump, either. It offers a excess of features that you can use to improve the quality of your online meetings.

• If you’re scheduling on using the free version of Skype, you should know that it only supports up to 25 people, and doesn’t actually include meetings in the traditional way. Of course, you can still use it as an online meeting application, but for real productivity, you’ll do good if you subscribed to one of the “Skype for Business” plans that Microsoft offers.
• Amazon Chime, on the other pointer, can only be used as a meeting application with one of the paid subscriptions. The free tier only includes 1:1 video calling, which makes the “Amazon Chime Basic” plan rather humble when it comes to remote, online meetings for enterprises. However, if you subscribe to the “Amazon Chime Plus”, or “Pro” plans, you’ll get access to a host of great features for your enterprise.
• To add it up, if you’re searching for a casual video calling  application, you can use Skype, or the “Amazon Chime Basic” plan. However, I would recommend using Skype, because it permits video conferencing between a maximum of 25 people. After all, you wouldn’t always use a casual video conferencing application for just video calling with one single person at a time.
• However, if you’re searching for an enterprise solution for your online meetings, I think the“Amazon Chime Pro” plan has a lot of potential in it. After all, it is based on the AWS cloud infrastructure, which is one of the best enterprise cloud computing solutions there are. Plus, I personally find the Amazon Chime app much simpler to understand, and use. For what it’s worth, though, the Skype for Business app can also serve you well, when it comes to enterprise solutions for online meetings, so the choice is entirely yours to make.

Amazon Chime: Truly a Skype Competitor?

Amazon may have propelled Chime as their solution to Microsoft’s Skype for Business, however whether it can really rival a set up application like Skype, is impossible to say. For what it’s worth, Amazon Chime offers some truly extraordinary elements, and at an aggressive cost. Add to that the way that Chime depends on Amazon’s AWS cloud foundation, and you can instantly observe why it has a decent possibility of contending with Skype; both for easygoing clients, and as an undertaking arrangement.

As usual, do share your contemplations on Amazon Chime, and whether you think it can contend with Skype, or not. Likewise, let us think about the applications and administrations you use for voice, and video calling, and also for online gatherings, in the remarks area underneath.