The U.S. tech giant is reportedly making plans to create an all-in-one app that combines web search, news feeds, shopping, messaging and other functions to break Google and Apple’s monopoly on mobile search. The company’s top executives were partly inspired by China-based Tencent’s WeChat app where users don’t have to leave the app to access other services, sources told The Information. (The Information)

Talking point: The move would mark a deeper expansion into consumer services for Microsoft, which has made unsuccessful attempts to replace Google as Apple iOS’s default search engine with its own Bing. Microsoft is the latest Big Tech company interested in emulating WeChat. Mobile operating system giants Apple and Google have been making it harder for third-party apps to collect user data, so ad-driven companies like Facebook want to keep as much activity in-app as possible. Facebook parent Meta’s virtual reality-based Horizon Worlds is trying to create an all-in-one app. Meanwhile, Elon Musk has previously shown interest in developing “X, the everything app” when he proposed to buy Twitter.