Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. In some cases, randomized shifts of a base sequence may be used for transmitting uplink control information. For example, a user equipment (UE) may identify a base sequence of an uplink control message. The UE may also receive signaling that indicates a UE-specific initial shift that may be applied to the base sequence. In some examples, the signaling that indicates the randomized shift may be explicit, implicit, or a combination thereof. After determining one or more shifted sequences based on the UE-specific initial shift, a payload of the uplink control message, and the base sequence, the UE may select a shifted sequence to be transmitted, where the selection is based on a payload of the uplink control message. For example, different shifted sequences may be selected for respective transmissions of scheduling requests, 1-bit acknowledgments (ACKs), 2-bit ACKs, and the like.