Adaptive application behavior based on assessed network characteristics

Mobile devices executing applications utilize data services worldwide. Data may be acquired at a mobile computing device during communication. Over relatively short time scales differences in the data may be determined. Based on the differences, output data may be generated that is indicative of one or more particular network characteristics, such as bandwidth, latency, transmit power, received signal strength, and so forth. The output data may then be used to change the behavior of one or more of an application executing on the mobile computing device or a service executing on server that is in communication with the mobile computing device. For example, output data may be used as input to selection nodes associated with the application or service.