Update: EA has confirmed that the Squad Join feature will only be available for console players. The publisher made the details clear to Polygon in a statement, indicating that it has no plans to bring the feature to PC. EA and DICE recommend that PC players use Battlelog to join friends.

Original Story:

In November, DICE told Battlefield fans that they were stuck with a new squad feature that dynamically paired up friends after a match begins. At that time, the developer said that it had no plans to add a pre-match squad feature so friends could join up together. Apparently, plans have changed.

In a post on Battlelog, DICE has announced that players can help beta test the Squad Join feature. By selecting the Squad Join Beta, players can see available squads or create one.

From there, others can join your squad before a match or, provided there is still room, once a game has started. Full implementation is not yet complete, so there is no way yet to manage players in a squad and, based on the video, it doesn’t look like you can make them private yet.

The beta will only work for now on base game maps in Conquest, Team Deathmatch, Obliteration, Rush, and Domination. Other maps and modes will be coming later.

[Source: Battlelog]

Our Take
This is one of the most requested features since Battlefield 4 launched six months ago. It’s certainly better late than never, but this is extremely late. My hope is that the work being done now will find its way into the next Battlefield game at launch, because playing without pre-match squads was extremely frustrating.