It’s a Blink camera. It runs on 2 AA batteries that could last 2 years. It doesn’t constantly operate. I can open the app on my phone and touch “live feed” to turn the camera on. At that point I can record what’s going on or not. It does have a microphone and a speaker so yes I can talk to them. They don’t like when I talk. LOL It has night vision and I can choose to turn on motion detection too. So obviously in the day that is off! But I left the door open to the run last night when I went to work. Once they settled in I turned on motion detection and felt so much better that I didn’t get an alert. I’m ready to add more cameras!