Ping is a diagnostic operation commonly used to test whether a destination responds to particular network echo requests and to measure their round-trip timing. Some devices or networks limit or block such responses. A ping result therefore describes that test's behaviour rather than directly proving that an application, account or video stream is healthy.
A practical example
A router may answer ping quickly while a media application still fails to authenticate with its service. Conversely, a server can deliver a web resource while not answering the test's echo requests, making the two observations compatible rather than contradictory.
A common misunderstanding
A missing response is not always packet loss affecting actual playback. Identify the destination and whether it is expected to answer before using the result to assign a network fault.
Related terms
Stable technical definition. Editorial approach