The disclosure provides communication methods and apparatuses. One example method includes that a terminal device sends a random access request to a network device, and the terminal device receives a random access response to the random access request that comprises first configuration information from a network device. The first indication information indicates not to perform channel access or the first indication information indicates that a channel access type is channel access without random back-off or channel access with random back-off with variable size of contention window. The terminal device sends an uplink message to the network device based on the first indication information, where the uplink message is carried on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH).