Aspects relate to dynamically changing the slot format of a slot between half-duplex and sub-band full-duplex (SBFD) and/or to changing flexible symbols within a flexible slot between half-duplex and SBFD when a base station is configured to operate in a SBFD mode. A slot format indicator (SFI) indicating the slot format of the slot may be signaled, for example, via downlink control information (DCI) mapped to a downlink control channel or medium access control (MAC) control element (MAC-CE) mapped to a downlink data channel. To improve reliability, various SFI boosting mechanisms may further be employed. For example, the base station may apply a higher aggregation level to the SFI, transmit repetitions of the SFI across multiple beams, apply a CRC enhancement and/or MCS enhancement to the downlink control channel carrying the SFI, and/or apply a power boost to the SFI.