This application provides a data transmission method and an electronic device. The method includes: establishing, by an electronic device, a multipath transmission control protocol MPTCP connection to a first application server, where the MPTCP connection includes a first TCP connection and a second TCP connection, and a data transmission delay of the first TCP connection is less than a data transmission delay of the second TCP connection; and receiving, by the electronic device, indication information from the first application server, where the indication information includes a type identifier used to indicate a type of a data stream sent by the first application server; receiving, by the electronic device preferentially by using the first TCP connection or the second TCP connection, the data stream from the first application server according to the indication information.