A communications method comprising: receiving by a second radio access network, RAN, device (122, 800), a first message sent by a first RAN device, wherein the first message comprises a first identifier of a terminal device, wherein the terminal device is in an inactive state, wherein the first RAN device is an anchor RAN device that stores a context of the terminal device and maintains a connection between a RAN side of the terminal device and a control plane of a core network, CN, side of the terminal device, and wherein the second RAN device (122, 800) is a camped RAN device of the terminal device and does not have the context of the terminal device; sending by the second RAN device (122, 800), a second message to the terminal device, wherein the second message comprises the first identifier of the terminal device, and the second message is used to page the terminal device; receiving, by the second RAN device (122, 800), a third message sent by the terminal device, wherein the third message comprises a second identifier of the terminal device, and the third message is used to request to resume a radio resource control, RRC, connection; and sending, by the second RAN device (122, 800), a fourth message to the terminal device according to instruction information for releasing the context of the terminal device, wherein the fourth message is used to instruct the terminal device to perform state transition; characterized in that the first message further comprises the instruction information for releasing the context of the terminal device, wherein the instruction information for releasing the context of the terminal device comprises at least one of the following: instructing the terminal device to transit to an idle mode, instructing to perform load balancing, instructing the terminal device to perform a RAN based notification area, RNA, update, or instructing the terminal device to perform a tracking area update, TAU, or a registration area update, RAU; and the first identifier of the terminal device is a non-access stratum identifier allocated by the CN side to the terminal device and the second identifier of the terminal device is an access stratum identifier allocated by the RAN side to the terminal device. receiving by a second radio access network, RAN, device (122, 800), a first message sent by a first RAN device, wherein the first message comprises a first identifier of a terminal device, wherein the terminal device is in an inactive state, wherein the first RAN device is an anchor RAN device that stores a context of the terminal device and maintains a connection between a RAN side of the terminal device and a control plane of a core network, CN, side of the terminal device, and wherein the second RAN device (122, 800) is a camped RAN device of the terminal device and does not have the context of the terminal device; sending by the second RAN device (122, 800), a second message to the terminal device, wherein the second message comprises the first identifier of the terminal device, and the second message is used to page the terminal device; receiving, by the second RAN device (122, 800), a third message sent by the terminal device, wherein the third message comprises a second identifier of the terminal device, and the third message is used to request to resume a radio resource control, RRC, connection; and sending, by the second RAN device (122, 800), a fourth message to the terminal device according to instruction information for releasing the context of the terminal device, wherein the fourth message is used to instruct the terminal device to perform state transition; characterized in that the first message further comprises the instruction information for releasing the context of the terminal device, wherein the instruction information for releasing the context of the terminal device comprises at least one of the following: instructing the terminal device to transit to an idle mode, instructing to perform load balancing, instructing the terminal device to perform a RAN based notification area, RNA, update, or instructing the terminal device to perform a tracking area update, TAU, or a registration area update, RAU; and the first identifier of the terminal device is a non-access stratum identifier allocated by the CN side to the terminal device and the second identifier of the terminal device is an access stratum identifier allocated by the RAN side to the terminal device.