Control information associated with a transmission layer of a downlink transmission for a co-scheduled UE may be included in a companion DCI message. The companion DCI message may be sent to a first UE in addition to a self DCI message that communicates information associated with a transmission layer of the downlink transmission for the first UE. For example, a base station may transmit a self DCI message associated with a first transmission layer for a first UE and a companion DCI message associated with a second transmission layer for a co-scheduled UE in a control channel. The first UE may identify the self DCI message and the companion DCI message, and may then receive the downlink transmission based on the self and companion DCI messages. The UE may decode the downlink transmission based on the information included in both the self DCI message and the companion DCI message.