When it comes to browsers its not often I get excited about them, and I think that resonates with a lot of other people too. My browser is my place to go to search the internet, find information, do a bit of shopping, watch some videos, and maybe copy and paste a few images. I’ve come to realise that I do all of that without even thinking about the browser itself.
For the good majority of us, the default choice of browser is Google Chrome, and while there are other options out there such as Opera, Firefox, Safari, and many more, I think its fair to say that a lot of us have just settled.
I myself have been a Google Chrome user for as long as I can remember. I don’t think I had ever daily driven an alternative browser… until I heard about Arc.
Design & Customisation
The first thing you will notice when booting up Arc is the design. Arc browser adopts a simple, yet elegant design with a more modern approach than some of the browsers you may be used to.
Most of the menu and tools (which you would normally find at the top of the page) have been picked up and moved across to the left hand side. In my personal experience I have found this to be more aesthetically pleasing and much more accessible. However, there is the ability to resize/hide this menu, should this not be your cup of tea.
Arc also allows you to apply different colours, gradients, and themes to allow you to tailor the look and feel to your tastes. While customisation does exist on alternative browsers already, this has never felt like a well thought out feature and is very rarely implemented in a meaningful way. When it comes to Google Chrome for example, theres are a few basic colours to choose for your profiles and image backgrounds can be used but many users may miss this altogether and remain with the dull, default theme. Customising in Arc brings the browser to life, adds a bit of personality, and feels like it actually serves a purpose, especially when applied to different spaces.
Spaces
Spaces is one of my favourite features of Arc Browser. Each space can have their own titles, emojis, colours, and textures. This makes things a lot more organised and makes for easy separation. For example, I like to keep my work, personal and Nothing related content separate and neatly organised. When I’m in work mode, I’m in my work space and when I want to kick back and relax, watch some YouTube and read the news, I jump over to my personal space.
Each space can also have its own folders which help to organise tabs even further. As you can see from the image below, I have my personal space and within that space I have a folder for all things shopping. This is similar to bookmark folders that we are already used to by now, but being a part of spaces, and being amongst all the other extra details and customisation features makes a huge difference as a whole.
Easel
For those note takers out there, easel is a fantastic feature that I’m sure you will love. You can even split your easel with a web page to take notes and browse the web at the same time.
Boost
Not a fan of a websites original theme? No dark mode available? Or maybe you just have a colour scheme or font that you really like. No problem! With Boost you can edit the theme of any website with a few basic controls. You can use tools such as zap to remove certain assets as well.
On top of all that, boosts can be shared with others too. It’ll be interesting to see all the different kinds of themes people come up with.
Frequent New Features/Updates
Arc browser has another ace up its sleeve and that’s frequent, meaningful updates. I highlight meaningful here because browser updates are usually security updates and not much more. I’m sure a lot of people probably don’t check for updates or even realise when a new update has dropped. Arc on the other hand are currently offering weekly updates, most of which implement a brand new feature.
Some features that have been dropped include:
- Introducing Vertical Split View! You can now stack sites on top of each other (in addition to side by side!). Hit CMD T and type “Add Vertical Spit” or drag a tab from your sidebar to the top / bottom centre of your screen.
Introducing Peek! Peek is a convenient way to preview sites from Pinned Tabs. Simply click on a new link from a Pinned or Favorited Tab, and Arc will automatically open that tab in Peek! Learn more by viewing the Peek Article via Help > Visit Help Center.
Introducing Boost Shuffle! Hit the paint brush icon in the URL at the top of your Sidebar to start editing any webpage. If you want some inspo, click the dropdown near your Boost’s name and select “Shuffle”. Keep your Boost as is, or edit to make it just right. Then hit share!
And many more! Be sure to check out the patch note archives for the full list.
One new feature that I have started using is the addition of Perplexity AI as a default search engine option. For those of you who haven’t heard of Perplexity, they have recently become known for their partnership with Rabbit and their new R1 companion device. To read more about Perplexity and their AI model, be sure to check our Perplexity AI discussion.
Since I’ve started writing this, Arc search has also been released on iOS albeit a slightly more watered down version.
With how fast Arc is gaining traction and the frequency in which the team deliver updates, i’m sure there will be more to write about by the time this discussion has even gone live!
If you haven’t already considered switching browsers, does Arc seem like something you’d want to try out? What do you like and dislike about it? and finally, seeing how much goes into Arc, do you feel that we should expect more from our browsers?
