Apparatus, methods, and computer-readable media for facilitating improvement in sensing for unicast sidelink communication are disclosed herein. An example method for wireless communication at a first user equipment (UE) includes receiving, from a second UE over a sidelink channel, a first transmission comprising sidelink control information (SCI). In some aspects, the SCI indicates a resource reservation of the second UE. The method includes obtaining measurements of the first transmission and determining whether the measurements exceed a reference threshold. The method includes determining whether the SCI includes an indication that the second UE is following a first resource recommendation of a third UE that is an intended receiver of the second UE when the measurements exceed the reference threshold. The method also includes ignoring the resource reservation of the second UE when the SCI includes the indication that the UE is following the first resource recommendation of the third UE.