A communication method, an apparatus, and a system in which a first session management function entity determines, based on information of a terminal group, user plane function entities accessed by terminals in a terminal group, and the first session management function entity determines a target user plane function entity based on the user plane function entities, where the target user plane function entity is used to perform communication between terminals in the terminal group. According to the method, the terminals in the terminal group are redirected to a same user plane function entity, namely, the target user plane function entity, so that communication between the terminals in the terminal group is locally implemented in the target user plane function entity. This shortens a communication path, and reduces a communication latency.