Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to a conditional utilization of reference signals for managing communications of one or more user equipment (UE) in a wireless communications system. The described aspects include receiving a transmission having a first subframe slot and a second subframe slot, at least one of the first subframe slot and the second subframe slot have a single-slot transmission time interval (TTI). The described aspects further include detecting a first demodulation reference signal (DM-RS) in the first subframe slot and a second DM-RS in the second subframe slot. The described aspects further include determining whether to demodulate the at least one downlink channel in the first subframe slot using the first DM-RS in the first subframe slot or to demodulate both the first DM-RS in the first subframe slot and the second DM-RS in the second subframe slot based on whether at least one condition exists.