Disclosed is a method and apparatus for operating a first device. The first device obtains environment information in proximity to the first device and receives one or more communication messages from a second device and the message(s) includes relevance criteria, wherein the relevance criteria indicates one or more devices, one or more sets of device characteristics, one or more lanes, one or more intersections or areas, one or more pedestrian paths or bicycle paths, one or more signal characteristics from the second device or any combination thereof. The first device determines whether the one or more communication messages are relevant to the first device based on the relevance criteria and the environment information and performs an operation in response to the determination of whether the one or more communication messages are relevant.