Embodiments of this application relate to the field of communications technologies, and disclose communications methods and apparatuses. In an implementation, a method comprising receiving, by a first communications device, information about a radio bearer (RB) of a heterogeneous communications system, wherein a duplication operation for the RB is configured by a second communications device, and the first communications device and the second communications are comprised in a master node or a secondary node; generating, by the first communications device, an activation indication indicating whether to activate or deactivate the duplication operation of the RB, wherein whether to activate or deactivate the duplication operation is determined by the first communications device; and sending the activation indication to a terminal device.