For a long time, Apex Legends’ characters have been sorted into classes that didn’t mean much outside of being a general descriptor for how each character’s abilities fit into a team. Characters with shields or other objects designed to hold down areas were put into the defensive class. Characters with scan abilities belonged to recon. Characters that mostly dealt with being aggressive and dealing damage got the assault tag.
With the exception of recon class characters being able to scan survey beacons for future ring information, the classes in Apex haven’t really meant anything all that special for characters. But that could change very soon if some leaks hold true.