It is motion activated.
I got this doorbell on the last Wootoff. Installed the doorbell just fine. No problems, all is well. Then the syncing to my server. No luck. Failed syncing every time using an android phone. Tried reconfiguring the router to no avail. was about to give up and sell it on Craigslist or something. Then on a whim, tried syncing with an i-device. Holy crap, worked first time! Video quality is decent. The app software is OK. It works, also, with the android phone, so only the initial sync had issues with android. Happy with the purchase, even though I had the initial buyers remorse when it wouldn’t sync.
Motion activated if someone gets within range for approx 10 seconds, and it sends a chime alert to the devices synced to receive alerts.
Overall, 4 stars.
I purchased two of these. It was wonderful – for a year and a half or so. After that, it stopped giving me motion alerts. No good then. I contacted customer report. Ha!! They will give you $100 off on the new HD doorbell. It’s awful that it’s now rendered useless because they are no longer updating the classic model. Save your money!!!