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Amazon Retires Chime, Uses Zoom for Meetings and Expands Microsoft 365

Amazon retired Chime and Business Calling, but chose a split replacement: Zoom for standard internal meetings and Microsoft 365 and Teams for broader productivity and integrated collaboration.
From TheFinanceBase Team6 min to read
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Amazon has retired the customer-facing Amazon Chime application and Business Calling service, but it did not choose one universal replacement. According to reporting based on an internal employee memo, Zoom became Amazon’s standard internal meeting application, while Microsoft 365—including Teams—was expanded for office productivity and collaboration workflows that require close Microsoft integration.

The distinction matters: Amazon did not replace every Chime function with Microsoft Teams, and the shutdown did not include the separate Amazon Chime SDK used by developers to add communications features to applications.

What Amazon actually discontinued

AWS announced on February 19, 2025, that it would stop accepting new Amazon Chime customers and end support for the Chime service. The official end-of-support date was February 20, 2026. The decision covered the Amazon Chime application—used for meetings, chat and communications—and Amazon Chime Business Calling, including related calling features.

It did not cover the Amazon Chime SDK. The SDK is a separate developer service for embedding audio, video, messaging and other communications capabilities into applications. Developers using SDK components should verify the status of the specific AWS services they depend on rather than assuming that the end-user Chime application and the SDK are the same product. AWS’s announcement and its transition guidance both make this distinction.

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Amazon’s replacement is a split-tool strategy

The simplest answer to “What replaced Chime?” is incomplete. Amazon’s reported internal plan separates meetings from broader workplace productivity:

Need Reported direction
Standard internal meetings Zoom
Meetings requiring Microsoft 365 integration Microsoft Teams
Email, documents and productivity Microsoft 365, including Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, OneDrive and Loop
Meetings with Cisco-oriented customers Webex may be used
Possible alternatives for former Chime customers AWS Wickr, Zoom, Slack and Webex, among others
Embedded communications development Amazon Chime SDK remains separate

GeekWire reported that Zoom was selected as Amazon’s standard internal meeting application, with Teams available where deeper Microsoft 365 integration was useful. That reporting should not be converted into the broader—and unsupported—claim that Microsoft Teams became Amazon’s sole meeting platform.

Why did Amazon retire Chime?

Amazon’s public explanation was that Chime had limited use outside Amazon and that partner products offered collaboration solutions better suited to customers and employees. Amazon did not publish a detailed financial postmortem, a user-count threshold or a specific savings figure.

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The strategic logic is clearer than the financial details. A full collaboration suite requires continuous investment in meetings, chat, calendars, identity, telephony, administration, interoperability, recordings and compliance. Established vendors already have large installed bases, which can make external meetings easier for customers and partners. Standardizing on mature third-party tools can therefore be more practical than maintaining a smaller proprietary alternative.

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That does not prove Amazon retired Chime specifically to reduce costs, nor does it establish that Microsoft’s relationship with AWS influenced the decision. It does show a willingness to buy workplace software from outside vendors while preserving a narrower role in communications infrastructure through the Chime SDK.

The shutdown happened in phases

February 20, 2026, was AWS’s official end-of-support date, but the practical shutdown included later operational cutoffs. AWS’s subsequent support guidance described the following sequence:

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  • February 19, 2025: Amazon announced the retirement and stopped accepting new Chime customers.
  • February 20, 2026: Official end of support for the Chime service.
  • February 23, 2026: Users could no longer schedule or host meetings or use Business Calling; Pro users were moved to Basic permissions.
  • March 9, 2026: Administrators were scheduled to lose access to the Chime administrative console.
  • March 10, 2026: AWS’s support update described users being removed from Team and Enterprise accounts, administrators receiving 403 errors at the console, and Business Calling, CallMe and Chime for Slack no longer being supported.

The different dates describe a phased shutdown rather than a reversal of the February 20 end-of-support announcement. Administrators should use both the AWS transition documentation and the later support update when reviewing what happened to a particular account.

What former Chime customers need to know

Organizations with Team or Enterprise accounts created before February 19, 2025, could continue using supported Chime features during the transition period. After the shutdown, they could no longer administer users, host scheduled meetings or use Business Calling in the normal way.

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The change was not an automatic migration into Zoom, Teams, Slack or Webex. AWS’s guidance describes transition and export tasks, but does not promise a universal one-click transfer of chats, rooms, contacts, recordings, meeting histories or phone numbers.

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Data and workflow risks

Organizations should account for several separate migration problems:

  • Chat and contacts: Users in affected Team and Enterprise accounts could lose access to historic conversations, chat rooms, contacts and recent messages. Export information that the organization is entitled to retain before access disappears.
  • Room and user administration: Export room-member information, identify room owners and document important memberships.
  • Meetings: Recreate recurring meetings, meeting rooms, aliases, calendar templates and integrations in the chosen platform.
  • Business Calling: Treat phone numbers, SMS, voicemail, emergency calling, recording and compliance as a separate telephony project. AWS specifically advised customers to port Business Calling numbers to another carrier if they needed to retain them.
  • Compliance: Recheck SSO, identity provisioning, retention, e-discovery, recording policies, data residency and administrator controls in the replacement service.
  • External access: Test how customers, suppliers, candidates and partners join meetings without assuming they will use an Amazon account or the same platform as internal staff.

A practical migration checklist

  1. Run Chime usage reports to identify active users, meeting hosts, rooms and Business Calling numbers.
  2. Export user, room-member and contact information where required by company policy or legal obligations.
  3. Identify conversations, recordings, phone records and meeting information that must be preserved.
  4. Choose separately for meetings, persistent chat, office documents and telephony if one platform does not meet every need.
  5. Port phone numbers early if they must be retained; confirm carrier, SMS, emergency-calling and compliance requirements.
  6. Recreate calendar invitations, recurring meetings, room systems, integrations and external instructions.
  7. Configure identity, SSO, retention, recording and administrator policies in the new services.
  8. Run customer and partner join tests before sending replacement meeting links.
  9. Communicate the cutoff dates and update email signatures, websites, calendar templates and support documentation.
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Which replacement fits which organization?

Zoom

Zoom is the closest fit for organizations primarily replacing Chime’s meeting function, especially when external participants already recognize Zoom and the buyer wants a meeting-focused deployment. It may require separate choices for email, documents, persistent chat, identity, telephony and compliance. Plan names and add-on costs—including Phone, Rooms, Webinars, larger meetings, recording and AI features—vary by region and edition, so check Zoom’s current pricing page.

Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365

Teams is the stronger fit when an organization already depends on Outlook, Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Microsoft identity services. It can connect meetings, chat, files and office workflows in one ecosystem. The trade-off is licensing complexity and the possibility of paying for a broad suite when the immediate requirement is only video meetings. Review the applicable Microsoft 365 business plans or enterprise plans for the relevant region.

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Slack

Slack is best considered a messaging and asynchronous-collaboration alternative, with channels, integrations and workflow automation. AWS listed it as a possible Chime alternative, but the evidence does not show that Amazon selected Slack as its universal internal replacement. Slack is also not a complete substitute for Microsoft 365’s office applications, email and file-storage environment. See Slack’s plans for current packaging.

Webex

Webex makes sense where customers, partners or internal teams already use Cisco collaboration, calling or room infrastructure. It may be unnecessarily broad for a buyer seeking only lightweight meetings, but compatibility can outweigh that concern. AWS lists Webex as an alternative, and reported Amazon guidance identified it for meetings with Cisco-using customers. Current plans are listed at Cisco’s Webex pricing page.

AWS Wickr

Wickr is aimed at specialized secure communications and may suit organizations with AWS-oriented security or procurement requirements. It should not be treated as a feature-for-feature replacement for Chime meetings, Microsoft 365, Zoom or Business Calling without checking the exact requirements. AWS lists Wickr among possible alternatives at its Wickr product page.

The broader lesson for technology buyers

Amazon’s move separates internal productivity choices from its developer infrastructure strategy. It is buying collaboration software from competitors where established products are more practical, while retaining the Chime SDK for application developers.

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For buyers, the key question is not “Which product replaced Chime?” It is “Which Chime function am I replacing?” Meetings may point to Zoom. Microsoft-centered identity and documents may point to Teams and Microsoft 365. Persistent messaging may point to Slack. Cisco compatibility may make Webex the practical choice, while specialized secure communications may justify Wickr. Telephony and data retention require their own migration plans regardless of the meeting platform.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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