Amazon ending Chime, Inspire services
Amazon will cease operations of a proprietary messaging service and a shopping app feature widely seen as a competitor to TikTok.
In a corporate blog post, the Amazon Web Services (AWS) hosted cloud division of Amazon announced that it will end support for the Amazon Chime paid-for video and audio conferencing service that lets users chat and share content effective Feb. 20, 2026.
As part of the wind-down process, Amazon Chime is no longer accepting new customers. Existing customers can continue to use Amazon Chime features including business calling (direct calling and texting from the Chime platform), scheduling and hosting meetings, adding and managing users, and other capabilities supported through the Amazon Chime administration console.
To qualify as an existing customer, users must have created an Amazon Chime Team or Enterprise account prior to Feb. 19, 2025. After Feb. 20, 2026, no Amazon Chime features will be available for use, but the Amazon Chime SDK (a development platform for machine learning-based real-time voice, video, and messaging solutions) will still be offered.
AWS is providing documentation to help Amazon Chime users transition to other collaboration solutions, including other solutions provided by AWS or from AWS partners, such as Zoom, Webex and Slack.
Read the AWS corporate blog post here.
Amazon shutters Inspire
Amazon is also reportedly removing a Tik Tok-inspired feature it initially added to its shopping app in December 2022. According to TechCrunch, the online giant no longer offers Inspire as part of its consumer app’s functionality.
[READ MORE: Amazon introduces personalized in-app shopping experience]
When customers saw an item in Inspire, they could shop for it in real time on Amazon. In a few clicks, customers could tap on a video or photo to see product details including average star rating and reviews, color and style options, and price, and then add it to their cart.
Inspire was designed to learn more about a customer’s preferences over time through their interests and engagement to continue tailoring their feed of shoppable content. The company also positioned Inspire as a way for brands and influencers to grow their businesses on the Amazon mobile shopping platform.
In a comment to TechCrunch, an Amazon spokesperson said the company decided to shut down Inspire as part of a standard review process.
“We regularly evaluate various features to better align with what customers tell us matters most, and as part of that, Inspire is no longer available,” the spokesperson said.
Although the long-term future of TikTok in the U.S. is still unclear, President Trump paused a ban on the app here that briefly went into effect in January 2025 until at least April 1 and has signaled he wants to find a solution to keep it operating in the U.S.
TikTok operates an e-commerce store in the U.S., partners with numerous U.S. retailers, and was ranked the second-most-used social platform by American teens by the Pew Research Center.
Meanwhile, Amazon has been introducing a variety of digital shopping features since launching Inspire. Currently, the retailer Amazon is piloting a Google-type search feature for its U.S. shopping app where the app displays select products in its search results even if Amazon doesn’t sell them in its store, and links to the brand’s website so customers can purchase items there.
In addition, Amazon released Rufus, a generative AI-based expert shopping assistant trained on both its proprietary data and information from across the web, in July 2024 following several months of beta testing.
