Provided in the embodiment of the present invention are a D2D-based communication method and a terminal. The method comprises: a first terminal receives a discovery signal of a second terminal, the discovery signal comprising indication information for indicating the capability and/or the status of the second terminal; and the first terminal performs D2D communication with the second terminal on the basis of the instruction information. The embodiment of the present invention implements the D2D communication on the basis of the capability and/or status of the terminal, improving the flexibility of the D2D communication mode.