This video is slightly outdated, but it carries the point across.

Players of one faction can join together to form Squads and Platoons to make it easier to coordinate.

A Squad can have up to 12 members, including a Squad Leader (SL). To coordinate, they can use squad-wide Voice and Text Chat, and SL can put Squad Waypoint on the map.  

Additional coordination tools can be unlocked at the “Leadership” section of the “Social” menu, such as the ability to place smoke signals of various colors, designate Capture Points as objectives, and place “Defend” and “Attack” markers on the map that are visible to the whole faction.

Players earn XP bonuses for playing as a squad.

A squad can be split into up to four Fireteams. Each fireteam has access to their own waypoint and communication channels.

Several squads can join together to form a Platoon. Platoons can hold up to 4 squads: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta. So up to 48 people total. 

Platoon Squads can use platoon Voice and Text Chat to coordinate between each other, and Platoon Leader (PL) can put even more waypoints on the map.

By default, Platoon Leader is also a Squad Leader for the Alpha Squad, but he can promote another player to be Alpha’s Squad Leader, if they want to.

Squad Color – each squad in a platoon has its own color, to make it easier to distinguish members of different squads. You can customize these colors in the squad menu.

Mentor Squads

Some veteran players take it upon themselves to lead Mentor Squads with a specific purpose of helping new players learn the game. Mentor Squads are more likely to receive players below Battle Rank 15 when they use the “autojoin” feature (see below).

Overall, Mentor Squads work just like normal squads, but with a few simplifications: they cannot use fireteam waypoints, offensive and defensive requests, smoke signals, and they cannot be converted into a platoon.

Outfit Hosted Squads and Platoons

Players can create outfit-hosted squads and platoons. They work just like normal squads and platoons, with a few additional rules:

• If the squad leader goes offline, squad leadership will automatically pass to another outfit member.
• If there are no more outfit members left in the squad, it will automatically disband.

How to join a squad

The easiest way is to just press “Insert”, and you will automatically join the nearest squad. You can also press the “Join Squad” button at the top left of the main map. 

Alternatively, you can open the “Squad” tab of the “Social” menu, and pick from all of the open squads. 

Some outfits prefer to run closed squads, which are not visible in the squad browser, and the only way to get into such a squad is through a direct invite.

How to create a squad

To create a squad, you can use the “/squad create” chat command, or click the corresponding button on the Squad Browser screen on the Social page of the main menu.

Alternatively, you can simply invite another player, and a squad will be created automatically.

You can keep manually inviting more players, or you can click “Enable Recruitment” in the squad menu, and then your squad will appear in the list of open squads, and anyone will be able to join.

There are many ways you can invite a player to your squad:

• Click on their name in the chat.
• Put your crosshair over them and hold “Q” (spot).
• Type in chat: /squad invite PlayerName.
• By using a context menu in your Outfit or Friend list.
• By right clicking on that player’s position on the minimap. You can press Left Alt to show mouse cursor.

Squad Spawning

You can spawn directly into a Sunderer, Galaxy or a Valkyrie owned and occupied by a squad member. If the vehicle is in the enemy-controlled region, or a contested allied region, then you also have to be within 1000m of the vehicle.

You can spawn at an allied base from any distance, if majority of your squad are in that base’s region, and the region itself is not cut off. For the purposes of the “majority”, squad leader counts as two people.

Squads with at least two squad members gain access to Spawn Beacons.