Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described in which synchronization of one or more direct communications links between a user equipment (UE) and one or more other UEs is provided by one or more sidelink synchronization signals. The sidelink synchronization signals may include a first sidelink synchronization signal that provides a relatively coarse synchronization (e.g., providing rough timing information about the start of the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol, without providing any information identifying the source of the signal) that may be used to identify a search space for a second sidelink synchronization signal that provides relatively fine synchronization (e.g., identifying more precisely the OFDM symbol boundaries) and an identifier of the device that is transmitting the sidelink synchronization signals.