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Over the last few years, browsers have gotten boring. There’s Safari, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, and Edge. Yet, of those five listed, none genuinely do anything unique or out of the ordinary. They do offer a unique feature or two, but nothing has been anything new or exciting. All of them offer platform syncing, all offer to save your passwords, and all of them let you browse the internet, but none of these are novel ideas.
That is where Arc comes in. While Arc is fundamentally just another browser, it’s designed to be more than that. The Verge’s David Pierce summarized it best when he wrote, “Arc wants to be the web’s operating system.”
Like any operating system, Arc has a multitude of features and quirks; however, I want to talk about the three things I love the most about Arc.
Spaces
I am a very Type-A person. I love to keep things organized. I have folders within folders WITHIN my Spotify account.
While using Arc, I like to keep three spaces. One of these spaces is for my development work; I use this space to pin access to any API documentation I am referencing and to keep my influx of Google and Stack Overflow searches contained to one area. Another space is for anything task related, such as working on personal projects, checking in on my calendar, and answering emails.
Then, I’ve got my main space, which I use for casual browsing, which includes shopping, rabbit hole web browsing, and reading the news.
Having multiple different “spaces” helps me focus on what matters at that moment without the clutter of everything else.
I always keep a few websites open, regardless of what “mode” I am in. These include websites and apps such as Spotify (a web app), The Verge, Cron (a web app), and Todoist (a web app). Arc lets me pin my favorites across spaces, meaning I can keep the same Spotify session going even as I move between spaces. Of the four sites I had listed, 3 of them are web apps.
What are web apps?
Web apps take a website and turn it into an app. The majority of applications that you run on your computer every day are web apps. The Browser company knows that so much of the internet is made of web apps now, and Arc lets me treat them like apps on my phone, letting them run in the background at all times, always ready for me to interact with them.
All of my favorites are located at the top of the Sidebar, in squircles, again, just like apps on your phone.
Sidebar
The Sidebar is one of the first things you’ll notice about Arc. Arc removes the usual horizontal tab layout, opting for a sidebar.
Of all the things Arc throws at you, the tab layout is the most challenging feature to adapt to. While this may sound like a lot of change, you will never want to go back once you embrace the Sidebar.
Arc divides the Sidebar into various sections.
You’ve got your address bar at the top of the Sidebar. Arc offers a clean and minimal look by only showing the primary domain name.
Underneath the address bar, you have your favorites.
Below your favorites, you’ve got your Pinned Tabs. Think of these as regular bookmarks across the web that you want to return to later.
Arc then lets you place all of these items into folders, which further groups the tabs into whatever sub-category you desire.
After all of that, you’ve got your “Today Tabs,” which are your regular tabs. Your “Pinned Tabs” and “Today Tabs” stay constricted to the space you are in.
Arc lets you quickly move tabs around, meaning if you find something cool on the web you want to reference later, you can drag the tab into your pinned tabs. This can even be done across spaces!
How do you switch between spaces?
You swipe your finger on your trackpad or click and drag your mouse across the tab bar; both actions let you quickly swipe across your various spaces. You can also use the menu bar or one of Arc’s many keyboard shortcuts.
The Command Bar and Shortcuts
Arc loves its keyboard shortcuts. You can operate so much of Arc by simply using your keyboard.
Want to switch spaces?
There’s a keyboard shortcut for that.
Want quick access to a favorite app?
There’s a keyboard shortcut for that.
Want to visit another tab you have open?
There’s a keyboard shortcut for that.
Now you don’t have to use these shortcuts, but there is one shortcut that you must use.
⌘ + T
Command + T brings up The Command Bar. The command bar functions like Spotlight on the Mac (Cmd+Space) or the Windows Search bar (Alt+Space).
The command bar is the element that Arc is built around. With the combo of Cmd+T (or Cmd+L), you are greeted with your address/search bar. Just like with any browser, I can search for a website or search for something on Google, but Arc takes it one step further by integrating more intelligent commands into the command bar.
With the command bar, I can quickly jump between tabs, call and use my web extensions, search my history (which Arc labels as “Your Archive,” similar to your email inbox), and use Arc’s other features, such as Easel and Notes!
Bonus Features
While I can’t write about everything Arc offers, here are three more really cool things that Arc has.
Easel: Easel gives you a virtual whiteboard on top of the browser that you can quickly jump in and out of. This is handy when planning a trip or working on your vision board.
Boosts: Boosts let you customize the web to your liking. Arc lets you personalize any site on the web, from fonts to site themes and colors.
Little Arc: This one is incredibly fun. When you get a link sent to you via email or text, instead of opening an entirely new window, Arc opens a small mini web browsing window of that page, which you can fully interact with. You can expand the link into one of your spaces or complete all interactions within the Little Arc window.
Little arc opens up any hypertext link. Notice in the corner where you can expand the page into your Space with ⌘+O
Features like these should be cherished as they bring the fun back into web browsers.
Arc has weekly updates with feature drops.
Since I started working, I have not had the time or reason to reach for my personal laptop. I used an iPad for most of my non-work tasks because I wanted the best and easiest experience for watching Youtube and surfing the web casually. I reached for my computer when and if I was making a big purchase or answering a formal email. Arc changed that for me.
While I can’t recommend Arc to everyone just yet, as it’s not on any platforms outside of MacOS (a Windows app is in development to launch later this year), and it has quite the learning curve, I most definitely think that if you’re even remotely curious about Arc, you should try it. With the mess that is the internet these days, Arc brings back an excitement that has been absent for a long time. I can’t wait to see what The Browser Company brings to Arc next.
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