Microsoft will make its Slack competitor, Microsoft Teams, generally and globally available on March 14.

Microsoft is holding an online event at 8:30 am PT/11:30 am ET on that day to coincide with the launch.

Microsoft describes Teams as "the chat-based workspace in Office 365."

Microsoft made a public preview of Teams available in early November. At that time, officials said Teams would be available to Office 365 commercial customers with one of the following plans: Business Essentials, Business Premium, and Enterprise E1, E3, and E5. (Microsoft Teams will also be available to customers who purchased E4 prior to its retirement.)

Those who are subscribing to any of these plans will get Teams for free as part of their paid subscription. There will not be a totally free, entry-level version of Microsoft Teams, officials said last year.

Microsoft Teams runs on Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and the Web.

Last year, Microsoft officials told me they would have more to say about when and how the company will add guest access and Office 365 Education support to Teams closer to the product's launch. So I'm expecting we'll hear more on both of these topics in another week or so.

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