AWS Moves Into Unified Communications

Amazon Web Services (AWS) entered the Unified Communications (UC) market in early 2017 with the launch of Amazon Chime, a cloud-based communications service designed to compete directly with established platforms such as Skype for Business, GoToMeeting, and Cisco WebEx. The service combines video meetings, voice calls, team chat, and screen sharing into a single application available on desktop, iOS, and Android devices.

Core Features

Amazon Chime was designed with simplicity and reliability in mind. Key features at launch included:

• One-click meeting start: Hosts and attendees can join meetings without entering a PIN. When a participant joins, the roster updates automatically with their name and presence information.
• Visual roster and noise management: A real-time attendee roster identifies who is speaking or generating background noise. Any attendee can mute a disruptive line directly from the roster view.
• Wideband, noise-cancelling audio: Calls are delivered over noise-cancelling wideband audio for improved call quality.
• Screen sharing: Participants can share their screens or switch between applications during a meeting without interrupting the session.
• Persistent chat rooms: Chime chat rooms retain message history and shared files, allowing teams to return to a conversation and resume where they left off.

Pricing Tiers

Amazon Chime launched with three editions targeting different organizational needs:

Distribution Partners

At launch, Amazon announced that Chime would be made available through carrier and UCaaS partners Level 3 and Vonage, with availability scheduled for Q2 2017. Notably, Vonage planned to offer Chime Pro Edition to its existing business customers at no additional cost, a move seen as helping Vonage strengthen its position against other UCaaS vendors offering comparable capabilities.

Industry Context and Background

The launch did not come as a surprise to industry analysts. Prior to the Chime announcement, AWS had acquired Biba, a company specialising in video messaging applications, signalling the company’s intent to build out business communications capabilities. Blair Pleasant, co-founder of UCStrategies, commented at the time:

“Many of us have been waiting for Amazon to make a move in the business communications arena, and the competitive landscape has just grown to include a new key player. There are many, many similar applications on the market, so it will be interesting to see how AWS differentiates itself.”

Blair Pleasant, Co-founder, UCStrategies

Pleasant also noted the strategic significance of the Vonage partnership: offering Chime Pro at no extra charge to Vonage business customers gave Vonage a tangible differentiator against rival UCaaS providers.

What This Means for DevOps and Engineering Teams

For engineering and DevOps organisations already invested in the AWS ecosystem, Amazon Chime represented a natural extension of their tooling. The ability to manage communications through the same AWS account, apply familiar IAM-style user management (available in Plus and Pro tiers), and integrate with existing AWS workflows made Chime a pragmatic option for teams looking to consolidate vendors. The persistent chat and file-sharing model also aligned well with the asynchronous collaboration patterns common in distributed engineering teams.

Note: This article reflects Amazon Chime’s features and pricing as announced in February 2017. Pricing, feature availability, and distribution partnerships may have changed since publication.