A communication method, comprising: receiving, by a terminal, synchronization information in a beam in an outer loop time segment of a synchronization period according to a preset synchronization period from a base station; obtaining, by the terminal, a synchronization information index of the synchronization information, the synchronization information comprising primary synchronization information and secondary synchronization information; pre-obtaining, by the terminal, a correspondence between the synchronization information index and a symbol location, set by the base station, and after obtaining the synchronization information index of the synchronization information, determining, by the terminal, the symbol location of the synchronization information in accordance with the correspondence; and performing, by the terminal, time-domain symbol synchronization according to the symbol location of the synchronization information; the method further comprising: obtaining, by the terminal, time-domain location information of the synchronization information from synchronization configuration information corresponding to the synchronization information; and determining, by the terminal according to a relative time-domain location of the outer loop time segment in the synchronization period and/or a relative time-domain location of an inner loop time segment in the synchronization period, and according to the time-domain location information of the synchronization information, whether the synchronization information is in the outer loop time segment or the inner loop time segment, wherein the outer loop time segment is a discovery message time segment, the inner loop time segment is a common message time segment, and the relative time-domain location of the outer loop time segment and/or the inner loop time segment is a corresponding specific time segment of the outer loop time segment or the inner loop time segment and represented as a frame number of a corresponding radio frame. receiving, by a terminal, synchronization information in a beam in an outer loop time segment of a synchronization period according to a preset synchronization period from a base station; obtaining, by the terminal, a synchronization information index of the synchronization information, the synchronization information comprising primary synchronization information and secondary synchronization information; pre-obtaining, by the terminal, a correspondence between the synchronization information index and a symbol location, set by the base station, and after obtaining the synchronization information index of the synchronization information, determining, by the terminal, the symbol location of the synchronization information in accordance with the correspondence; and performing, by the terminal, time-domain symbol synchronization according to the symbol location of the synchronization information; the method further comprising: obtaining, by the terminal, time-domain location information of the synchronization information from synchronization configuration information corresponding to the synchronization information; and determining, by the terminal according to a relative time-domain location of the outer loop time segment in the synchronization period and/or a relative time-domain location of an inner loop time segment in the synchronization period, and according to the time-domain location information of the synchronization information, whether the synchronization information is in the outer loop time segment or the inner loop time segment, wherein the outer loop time segment is a discovery message time segment, the inner loop time segment is a common message time segment, and the relative time-domain location of the outer loop time segment and/or the inner loop time segment is a corresponding specific time segment of the outer loop time segment or the inner loop time segment and represented as a frame number of a corresponding radio frame. obtaining, by the terminal, time-domain location information of the synchronization information from synchronization configuration information corresponding to the synchronization information; and determining, by the terminal according to a relative time-domain location of the outer loop time segment in the synchronization period and/or a relative time-domain location of an inner loop time segment in the synchronization period, and according to the time-domain location information of the synchronization information, whether the synchronization information is in the outer loop time segment or the inner loop time segment, wherein the outer loop time segment is a discovery message time segment, the inner loop time segment is a common message time segment, and the relative time-domain location of the outer loop time segment and/or the inner loop time segment is a corresponding specific time segment of the outer loop time segment or the inner loop time segment and represented as a frame number of a corresponding radio frame.