What Is Jitter?
Jitter is how much your latency varies from moment to moment. A steady 40 ms ping feels smooth, but a ping that jumps between 20 ms and 120 ms feels awful, even if the average looks fine.
Advertisement
Why jitter matters
Real-time apps assume data arrives at a steady pace. When packets bunch up and then rush in, you get stutter in video calls, choppy audio, and rubber-banding in games. Jitter is often the hidden cause when your speed test looks great but calls still drop out.
What causes it
- Wi-Fi interference and distance, by far the most common.
- A congested connection with too much happening at once.
- Old or failing networking hardware.
- Routing or congestion problems on your ISP's network.
How to reduce it
- Switch to a wired Ethernet connection for calls and gaming.
- Stop other downloads and streams while you need a steady connection.
- Restart the router to clear congestion.
- If it persists on a wired connection, note the times and report it to your ISP.