Methods, systems, and devices for updating beam-based communications are described. A base station may configure a user equipment (UE) with a set of beam management configurations, which may be used to modify (e.g., dynamically or periodically) beam-based communications. For example, the base station may indicate a beam configuration for utilization by the UE and the UE may switch to the indicated beam configuration or update a currently used beam configuration based on the indication. In another example, a set of beam configurations may be sequentially ordered, and the base station may indicate to the UE to use the next beam configuration in the sequence of beam configurations. The update to the beam configuration may be triggered based on a distance change (e.g., UE and base station getting closer or farther apart) or a reference signal measurement between the UE and the base station, among other factors.