diff --git a/discord/client.py b/discord/client.py
index f21417c32..4d719a4be 100644
--- a/discord/client.py
+++ b/discord/client.py
@@ -172,6 +172,15 @@ class Client:
                 return m.group(1)
         return invite
 
+    @property
+    def latency(self):
+        """float: Measures latency between a HEARTBEAT and a HEARTBEAT_ACK in seconds.
+
+        This could be referred to as the Discord WebSocket protocol latency.
+        """
+        ws = self.ws
+        return float('nan') if not ws else ws.latency
+
     @property
     def user(self):
         """Optional[:class:`ClientUser`]: Represents the connected client. None if not logged in."""
diff --git a/discord/gateway.py b/discord/gateway.py
index 50104034f..e3825d26d 100644
--- a/discord/gateway.py
+++ b/discord/gateway.py
@@ -346,6 +346,8 @@ class DiscordWebSocket(websockets.client.WebSocketClientProtocol):
         if op == self.HELLO:
             interval = data['heartbeat_interval'] / 1000.0
             self._keep_alive = KeepAliveHandler(ws=self, interval=interval, shard_id=self.shard_id)
+            # send a heartbeat immediately
+            yield from self.send_as_json(self._keep_alive.get_payload())
             self._keep_alive.start()
             return
 
diff --git a/discord/shard.py b/discord/shard.py
index 70b99ee6b..89463059f 100644
--- a/discord/shard.py
+++ b/discord/shard.py
@@ -149,6 +149,24 @@ class AutoShardedClient(Client):
         ws = self.shards[shard_id].ws
         yield from ws.send_as_json(payload)
 
+    @property
+    def latency(self):
+        """float: Measures latency between a HEARTBEAT and a HEARTBEAT_ACK in seconds.
+
+        This operates similarly to :meth:`.Client.latency` except it uses the average
+        latency of every shard's latency. To get a list of shard latency, check the
+        :attr:`latencies` property.
+        """
+        return sum(latency for _, latency in self.latencies) / len(self.shards)
+
+    @property
+    def latencies(self):
+        """List[Tuple[int, float]]: A list of latencies between a HEARTBEAT and a HEARTBEAT_ACK in seconds.
+
+        This returns a list of tuples with elements ``(shard_id, latency)``.
+        """
+        return [(shard_id, shard.ws.latency) for shard_id, shard in self.shards.items()]
+
     @asyncio.coroutine
     def request_offline_members(self, *guilds):
         """|coro|