# Starting instant meetings and calls
<a name="start-call"></a>

If you need a quick meeting, you can:
+ Start an instant meeting. When you start an instant meeting, you invite one or more contacts before the meeting starts. You can also invite others to join after the meeting starts.
+ Call a contact. You can call contacts from the chat pane, or from your contacts list. The call starts when the contact answers. Again, you can invite others to join the call.
+ Call a chat room. You can call one or more of the members in a chat room. You can also call everyone in the chat room.
+ Use your call history to call a contact or chat room again.

Instant meetings and calls take place in the Meetings Window. When you start an instant meeting or call, you become the host, and you can use additional meeting controls. For more information about those controls, see [Hosting meetings](chime-organizer-call-controls.md).

**Topics**
+ [

# Starting instant meetings
](start-instant-mtg.md)
+ [

# Calling a contact
](call-contact.md)
+ [

# Using your call history to call others
](call-from-history.md)

# Starting instant meetings
<a name="start-instant-mtg"></a>

Instant meetings allow you to you invite one or more contacts before the meeting starts. You can invite others to join after the meeting start. Invitees can decline to join.

**To start an instant meeting**

1. In the desktop client or web app, choose **Meetings**, **Start an Instant Meeting**.

1. Choose **My personal meeting ID** or **Generate a new ID**. For more information about meeting IDs, see [Choosing a meeting ID](understand-mtg-options.md#choose-type).

1. Choose **Start**.

1. In the preview pane, choose **Join** or **Join with video**.

1. In the **Add attendees** dialog box, select one or more contacts and choose **Add**.

The meeting window appears when you choose **Add**. The people you invite can accept or decline the invitation.

# Calling a contact
<a name="call-contact"></a>

The steps in this section explain how to call a contact. The steps assume that you have one or more contacts in Amazon Chime.

**To call a contact**

1. Do one of the following:
   + Follow the steps in [Chatting with another user](direct-chat.md).
   + Follow the steps in [Chatting with a group](group-chat.md).

1. Choose the phone icon in the top-right corner of the window.

The call starts with all the chat users immediately. Users can decline the call, and they can leave the call at any time.

# Using your call history to call others
<a name="call-from-history"></a>



**To start a call from your history**

1. Do one of the following:
   + From the Amazon Chime desktop client or web app, under **Meetings and Calls**, choose **History**.
   + From the Amazon Chime mobile app, choose **Calls**.

1. Select the contact that you want to call, and on the menu that appears, choose **Call**.