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Did Amazon start a new round of cost cutting, layoffs or something? Yesterday they discontinued Chime. As if Amazon is doubling down on cutting "unnecessary" se

by rs186 2y ago

Did Amazon start a new round of cost cutting, layoffs or something? Yesterday they discontinued Chime. As if Amazon is doubling down on cutting "unnecessary" services

OJFord 2y ago
I don't know if I'd reach that conclusion because of Chime - there's also Blink & Ring, a lot of overlap and confusion in cameras & security.
- dowager_dan99 2y ago
  Chime is their online meetings app, not their doorbell camera
  - OJFord 2y ago
    Ah I was thinking of Ring Chime. (I'm sure there is a third overlapping with Ring & Blink though, can't recall name.)
specialp 2y ago
Everyone at Amazon (The only company I have seen using it) hated using Chime, and it wasn't at all on the level of competitors. So I think it was just an unsuccessful product.
- malfist 2y ago
  Slack huddles use chime under the hood.
  - viraptor 2y ago
    I could not find a reliable source for this. Got a link?
    - radioblahaj 2y ago
      https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/business-productivity/customers-like-slack-choose-the-amazon-chime-sdk-for-real-time-communications/ https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/business-productivity/customers...
    - malfist 2y ago
      Right on slack's webpage. https://slack.com/blog/news/slack-aws-drive-development-agility https://slack.com/blog/news/slack-aws-drive-development-agil... Unofficially, this agreement happened at the same time Amazon started using slack internally
  - vel0city 2y ago
    According to current press releases, the Chime SDK isn't going away just the Chime service sold directly to customers. > Note: This does not impact the availability of the Amazon Chime SDK service. https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/messaging-and-targeting/update-on-support-for-amazon-chime/ https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/messaging-and-targeting/update-...
- darkwater 2y ago
  So, what are AWS TAMs going to use to have meetings with customers? Chime was really awful.
  - mh- 2y ago
    First thing I thought of as well. Every time I go to join an AWS call, in my head I'm thinking "oh, right. ugh." Hopefully they just adopt Zoom and not something even more obscure.
    - mdaniel 2y ago
      Allegedly, along with Microsoft 365 (my condolences to them) https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-zoom-main-meeting-app-microsoft-365-2025-2 https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-zoom-main-meeting-app...
- imurray 2y ago
  Every product has its hate, but everyone is rarely true. Personally (no longer at Amazon) I was impressed by Chime. It was simple, but rock solid, handling large calls well. Teams is still worse for me (>9 people display is bad, even in MS Edge, when on Linux). Zoom has a finicky interface. Early in the pandemic I had to use many different systems as an academic, when lots of different contacts pivoted online in different ways. Chime was the least of my problems; it just worked when many other systems struggled. I liked the Chime meeting/calendar integration at Amazon that could ring everyone at the start of the meeting, meaning that most meetings started promptly.
  - scarface_74 2y ago
    I was also at Amazon (AWS ProServe) we also hated Chime. AWS internally moved to Slack and only used Chime to schedule customer calls.
    - dowager_dan99 2y ago
      that's pretty funny. I had no idea Amazon had their own product in this space until my company did an engagement with ProServe.
- accelbred 2y ago
  On the other hand, at Amazon, people I know like Chime. Sad its going away.
  - 93po 2y ago
    i had to use it when amazon was a client of my employer and it was hot garbage in my opinion
shepherdjerred 2y ago
Thank god chime is gone
ravenstine 2y ago
They're also getting rid of the "Download & Transfer via USB" option for Kindle books, which was the last available option for directly removing DRM. But it does also mean that owners of older Kindle devices without WiFI are basically screwed.
snotrockets 2y ago
AWS (which isn't Amazon, really, even if they share resources), used to bake the cost of keeping the lights on practically forever, or at least until the last user churns. The product may not see improvements if it didn't get traction, but you could bank on being able to use it forever. When they did decide to kill something, like non-VPC EC2, you'd get the notice a literal decade ahead. For this specific example, sunset started end of '13, with the last instance shut off mid '23. This all started to change a couple of years ago, when they became much more aggressive with doing the Googles and just killing a thing with a few months of a warning. Pity.

by rs186 2y ago

Did Amazon start a new round of cost cutting, layoffs or something? Yesterday they discontinued Chime. As if Amazon is doubling down on cutting "unnecessary" services

OJFord 2y ago

I don't know if I'd reach that conclusion because of Chime - there's also Blink & Ring, a lot of overlap and confusion in cameras & security.

dowager_dan99 2y ago
Chime is their online meetings app, not their doorbell camera
- OJFord 2y ago
  Ah I was thinking of Ring Chime. (I'm sure there is a third overlapping with Ring & Blink though, can't recall name.)

specialp 2y ago

Everyone at Amazon (The only company I have seen using it) hated using Chime, and it wasn't at all on the level of competitors. So I think it was just an unsuccessful product.

malfist 2y ago
Slack huddles use chime under the hood.
- viraptor 2y ago
  I could not find a reliable source for this. Got a link?
  - radioblahaj 2y ago
    https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/business-productivity/customers-like-slack-choose-the-amazon-chime-sdk-for-real-time-communications/ https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/business-productivity/customers...
  - malfist 2y ago
    Right on slack's webpage. https://slack.com/blog/news/slack-aws-drive-development-agility https://slack.com/blog/news/slack-aws-drive-development-agil... Unofficially, this agreement happened at the same time Amazon started using slack internally
- vel0city 2y ago
  According to current press releases, the Chime SDK isn't going away just the Chime service sold directly to customers. > Note: This does not impact the availability of the Amazon Chime SDK service. https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/messaging-and-targeting/update-on-support-for-amazon-chime/ https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/messaging-and-targeting/update-...
darkwater 2y ago
So, what are AWS TAMs going to use to have meetings with customers? Chime was really awful.
- mh- 2y ago
  First thing I thought of as well. Every time I go to join an AWS call, in my head I'm thinking "oh, right. ugh." Hopefully they just adopt Zoom and not something even more obscure.
  - mdaniel 2y ago
    Allegedly, along with Microsoft 365 (my condolences to them) https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-zoom-main-meeting-app-microsoft-365-2025-2 https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-zoom-main-meeting-app...
imurray 2y ago
Every product has its hate, but everyone is rarely true. Personally (no longer at Amazon) I was impressed by Chime. It was simple, but rock solid, handling large calls well. Teams is still worse for me (>9 people display is bad, even in MS Edge, when on Linux). Zoom has a finicky interface. Early in the pandemic I had to use many different systems as an academic, when lots of different contacts pivoted online in different ways. Chime was the least of my problems; it just worked when many other systems struggled. I liked the Chime meeting/calendar integration at Amazon that could ring everyone at the start of the meeting, meaning that most meetings started promptly.
- scarface_74 2y ago
  I was also at Amazon (AWS ProServe) we also hated Chime. AWS internally moved to Slack and only used Chime to schedule customer calls.
  - dowager_dan99 2y ago
    that's pretty funny. I had no idea Amazon had their own product in this space until my company did an engagement with ProServe.
accelbred 2y ago
On the other hand, at Amazon, people I know like Chime. Sad its going away.
- 93po 2y ago
  i had to use it when amazon was a client of my employer and it was hot garbage in my opinion

shepherdjerred 2y ago

Thank god chime is gone

ravenstine 2y ago

They're also getting rid of the "Download & Transfer via USB" option for Kindle books, which was the last available option for directly removing DRM. But it does also mean that owners of older Kindle devices without WiFI are basically screwed.

snotrockets 2y ago

AWS (which isn't Amazon, really, even if they share resources), used to bake the cost of keeping the lights on practically forever, or at least until the last user churns. The product may not see improvements if it didn't get traction, but you could bank on being able to use it forever. When they did decide to kill something, like non-VPC EC2, you'd get the notice a literal decade ahead. For this specific example, sunset started end of '13, with the last instance shut off mid '23. This all started to change a couple of years ago, when they became much more aggressive with doing the Googles and just killing a thing with a few months of a warning. Pity.