This application provides an example paging indication information transmission method and an example communications apparatus. The method includes the terminal device receiving paging indication information, where the paging indication information includes at least one of the following bits: all or some bits of valid bits of a short message field in downlink control information (DCI), all or some bits of remaining bits of the short message field in the DCI, and all or some bits of a reserved field in the DCI. The method also includes the terminal device determining, based on the paging indication information, whether to detect a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).