A wireless device that adaptively makes the determination of whether or not to pre-authenticate. If the wireless device is running an application that is sensitive to latency (also referred to herein as a low latency application), then pre-authentication is performed and latency is reduced during the switch between wireless access points. Such low latency applications may include voice over IP, video, interactive whiteboard, or video teleconferencing. On the other hand, if the wireless device is not running a low latency application, the wireless device is less susceptible to latency when making the wireless access point switch. In that case, pre-authentication is not performed and processing and battery resources are preserved.