So, what is this increasingly popular browser whose new features are inspiring its competitors? Let’s find out.
If you’re anything like me, constantly juggling dozens of browser tabs, the Arc browser will catch your interest with its superior tab management capabilities.
I’m not typically loyal to one type of software (just to be clear, this only applies to software, love you honey), constantly hopping from one solution to another, always on the lookout for the best fit for my needs. Browsers are no exception. From Internet Explorer to Firefox, then Opera, Safari, Google Chrome, Brave, Vivaldi, and so on, I’ve tried them all. However, I’ve been using Arc as my default browser on my Macs for over a year (since its beta by invitation) and I’m thoroughly impressed. I don’t see myself switching anytime soon.
Most browsers operate in much the same way. They all stem from the paradigms set by their ancestor Netscape. Not much has changed since the introduction of the tab bar over 20 years ago. And mainstream browsers like Chrome, Firefox, or Safari can’t make sweeping changes without risking losing their user base and their habits. However, a new startup can afford to flip the script and start from scratch. Well, not entirely because Arc uses the Chrome rendering engine: Chromium, which I understand could be a turnoff for some, myself included. That being said, it’s understandable: Chromium is the most popular and compatible rendering engine. It’s not feasible for developers to start from scratch and economically, it would be less appealing to start from Gecko (Firefox’s engine) or Webkit (Safari). That said, once you launch Arc, it’s hard to see the family resemblance with Chrome, except maybe for its voracious RAM usage. Another plus is that Arc is compatible with Chrome extensions.
Originally, browsers were used to open a few web pages. But as time has passed, we spend much more time working within a browser. It has become a tool for searching and organizing all our information. They weren’t designed to handle a large amount of data. For me, I often found myself with a browser window cluttered with dozens of tabs. And when it became too complicated to manage, I’d open a new window with dozens more tabs, and the vicious cycle continued. Until I had to take time to clean up my windows and tabs, only for the process to start all over again in a few weeks.
The first thing that stands out when using Arc is the lack of visible tabs. The main reason for me to switch from Internet Explorer 6 to Firefox (then called Firebird) was the simpler tab management, rather than having a window per site. Arc certainly doesn’t abandon this but forces us to rethink how we work with a browser. The tabs are there, but on the side. This has several advantages: our computer screens are wider than they are tall. Yet, most websites are vertically oriented with a limited width: we have more space widthwise. Having the tabs appear on the side allows us to better see their titles (which Arc allows us to change, as well as the icons, very handy for quickly spotting the page we’re interested in) and if needed, we can have many because we can scroll down the list easily, more easily than scrolling horizontally. You can also organize your tabs into folders for better management.
The second thing that strikes you is that the software is well-crafted and polished. Even though it shares the same base as Google Chrome, Arc feels right at home on Mac. You can tell the developers love the platform and do everything to make the browser a joy to use. Even though Arc has only recently become available on Windows, the developers started out on Mac, and it’s clearly their preferred platform. It’s hard to describe just how nice Arc is to use.
Arc is, for now, available only in English. Thus, I will use the original English terms, making my prose a sweet mix of French and English that Jean-Claude Van Damme would not disapprove of.
This area on the left, (called Sidebar), is divided into 3 parts:
This automatic closure is presented as a way to not be overwhelmed by dozens, or even hundreds, of open tabs. Arc often receives praise from productivity professionals, you know those who spend hours making Notion pages (or Obsidian or Logseq…). However, you don’t need to be one of those people to appreciate all that Arc has to offer.
Just the reorganization into Favorite, Pinned, and Today’s Tab is enough to make it a much more pleasant experience than most browsers.
Beyond the Sidebar with its three parts, you can create as many spaces as you want, each with its own Sidebar. Not only does each space have its own sites in the Pinned and Today’s Tab parts, but each space has its own theme and its own icon to recognize them at a glance (and which you can customize). You can have a personal space and another for work, have another space for a specific project, even a temporary one: it is very easy to create and delete a space.
Along with the spaces, there is the notion of a profile. Arc allows you to associate different profiles for each space. For example, if you have a personal Google account and another for work, just associate each account with a space and you won’t have to log out. This may seem like a minor feature, but believe me, when you have several different accounts for the same service, it makes all the difference in the world.
Arc is not lacking in features; there are even too many to describe and use them all. However, you don’t need to do that, just find a number that suits you and you will realize how special this browser is.
The Picture-in-Picture (PiP) mode is interesting: if you’re watching a video on YouTube and you switch tabs, the video will continue playing in PiP in a floating window. This window can be moved and resized. It’s very useful for me because I’ve configured it so that the PiP appears on my second screen, very handy when multitasking.
The Split View, as its name suggests, is a way to split the screen to have two pages (or three at most) side by side. Everything is done by drag and drop.
Air Traffic Control allows you to select certain links to open in specific places. For example, you can indicate that all Google Sheet links open automatically in your work space. A feature for advanced users, it is very powerful.
Arc Boost customizes any website for you. Not only can you choose the background color and fonts, but the zap function also allows you to remove certain parts (YouTube Short?). Finally, it is possible to share your Boosts as well as install the most popular ones.
As is the trend, Arc has integrated technologies from generative AI. But for the most part, they are quite practical.
Tidy Tabs: allows you to automatically clean up your tabs when you have more than 6 tabs in the Today’s Tab section. It reorganizes the tabs into sub-parts, each with a title that corresponds to the organization.
Instant Links: if you do a search by pressing Shift Enter (instead of Enter), you will have direct access to a link instead of search results.
Ask on Page: by pressing CMD F on a page, you can search for a word on the page, classic, or you can ask a question about the page’s content. For example, on a recipe page, you can ask for the cooking time.
5-second Previews: an instant summary of a link by pressing Shift.
Tidy Tab Titles: changes the title of the tabs to a shorter and more explicit title.
Tidy Downloads: changes the name of downloaded files to more understandable names. Whether it’s Tidy Downloads and Tidy Tab Titles, it doesn’t work very well for anything in French. Too bad.
ChatGPT in the Command Bar: make a request to ChatGPT directly in the search bar.
You’re obviously not obligated to use all of Arc’s features to appreciate it. But once you get used to a handful of them, it’s hard to use another browser.
I won’t go through them all, but some are worth sharing.
CMD Option N: activates Little Arc, a floating window without an interface. Handy for doing a quick search and closing the window.
CMD S: allows you to display or hide the sidebar (S for Sidebar).
CMD Shift D: puts the address bar at the top (which I prefer instead of being stuck above the Sidebar). Do it again and it returns to the left.
CMD OPTION SHIFT C: when you use this shortcut on a URL, it copies it in Markdown. How cool is that?
As you can see, I am a satisfied user of Arc and I could continue to write about the topic for a long time. But it’s time to conclude this review. The number of features and attention to detail are remarkable and command respect. It’s no wonder that for over a year, Arc has been my default browser on all my Macs (by the way, Arc obviously includes an account system with space synchronization on Mac but also on iPhone).
That said, there are a few points that might be problematic. First, Arc is free. How is its development funded? The developers assure that Arc will remain free and that it will be funded by charging companies to use it and by making some features paid. No doubt those around AI for Arc Max will eventually become so. The developer also commits to not collecting (and therefore not selling) private information and that their business model will never be associated with advertisements. Can we believe them? I don’t know but at least it’s written in black and white on their site.
One can also criticize the choice to use the Chromium base. Indeed, Arc is very RAM-intensive like its big brother Chrome. The same goes for battery use on laptops, which is significantly higher than Safari. Moreover, this choice is all the more unfortunate because of Google’s policy against content blockers with the arrival of Manifest 3. On this topic, the developer has indicated wanting to integrate a content blocker in Arc but it will still be subject to the rules of the latest Manifest integrated into the Chromium engine. I’ve tried, in vain, to modify Firefox to behave like Arc. There are projects, like Zen, which is a modification of Firefox to resemble Arc, but they are still in the early stages of development. What comes closest to a viable alternative to Arc is SigmaOS, based on the Safari Webkit engine, which is very promising.
In the meantime, I use Arc every day and make a donation once a year to the Firefox foundation, the price of my guilt.
Hi, my name is Disha and I’m a passionate writer and editor at “Jason Deegan”. With a keen interest in all things tech, I strive to bring you the latest news and updates from the world of high-tech.
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