Arc Browser is now available for Windows 11
Arc Browser, a Chromium-based browser, is now available for Windows. The browser was previously available as a waitlist-restricted beta version. If you added your name to the waitlist, but never received an invite, now is your chance to give it a try.
What you need to know about Arc Browser
Arc Browser is only available for Windows 11. You cannot install it on Windows 10 or any other version of Windows.
It is also not a browser that you install and run right away. The developers have added several mandatory steps to the setup process.
First, you are required to create an account. There is no option to skip this step. While that is okay for users who want to use the built-in sync functionality, it may feel invasive for users who have no such plans.
Second, you need to select a browser to import data from. There is no option to skip this step either.
Third, Arc Browser is based on Chromium. This means that you can install Chrome extensions and get good web compatibility. Downside is that you also get any negative feature that Google implements in Chromium.
The privacy policy reveals that Arc may use the email address to contact users. There you also discover that the browser collects product usage data automatically.
The browser itself
Arc Browser's interface looks different when compared to most browsers. Tabs are on the side. You find tab groups there as well, which are placed inside folders that you can collapse and expand.
The main toolbar is slim. The left side has buttons to open the browser menu and toggle the visibility of the sidebar.
The center area shows just the domain name of the site by default. Even subdomains, e.g., www, are not shown. This is a questionable design choice, as there is plenty of space available to show the full URL there. To see it, it is necessary to click on the domain.
Arc Browser has back, forward, and reload buttons, a button to copy the URL to the Clipboard, and a button to access site data.
Here you find the list of extensions that run on the current page. Not all extension icons are shown on the browser's main toolbar by default. A click on an extension icon opens its settings or menu.
The browser comes with uBlock Origin preinstalled. It is a highly regarded content blocker. It can be removed, if you do not want to use it.
Arc Browser supports a number of interesting features. Here is a quick overview:
- Note taking and whiteboard (called Easel) support.
- Boosts feature to create custom themes for websites, e.g., changing the font or colors.
- Mini player to play audio and video in a small floating window.
- Preview feature to preview content of select services such as Gmail, Outlook, or GitHub.
You can check out Ashwin's review of the Mac version of Arc Browser for additional details.
Verdict
Arc Browser is a hyped browser that is finally available for Windows 11. This is great news for users who use it on other devices already, and for users who want to give it a try.
Not all users may like the mandatory creation of an account or imports from other browsers. Some may close setup at this step.
Tab management takes some time to getting used to. While vertical tabs are nothing new, Arc browser separates tabs into favorites, spaces, and open tabs. You can, in theory, remove all favorites and spaces to end up with a single vertical tab bar for all tabs.
There is also the question about revenue. How is the Browser Company going to make money to finance development and other expenses? It is still unclear at this point.
The CEO of Arc highlighted some of the options in a video posted over a year ago on YouTube. There, he mentioned Arc for Teams, Boosts, and a potential store to sell these customizations.
What about you? Have you tried Arc Browser before or do you plan to?
My interest went at the word Chromium-based
“you are required to create an account”. On Edge I somehow managed to use it without using an account, and now another chrome browser force the use of an account. I do not see a bright future for Arc Browser.
Never heard of Arc browser before today, and it sounds like a massive fail. If I wanted a privacy-reducing browser, I’d use Chrome.
The only Chromium-based browser I use is unGoogled Chromium. And that only when a site doesn’t want to play nice with Firefox ESR or Librefox.
The peek feature for Arc is fantastic, but damn do they need to ditch forced login. The rest I can figure out myself in terms of privacy. The reality that I don’t know what telemetry is going in and out caused me to just reinstall Firefox to then harden it. I also got the Arc themed CSS for Firefox and the only thing really missing is some pin functionality and peek/small video player which I very much like. If Firefox developed these it’d be crazy. The addons just don’t do it right.
installed it and uninstalled after 5 minutes of trying … I have the same remarks as martin
Another useless Chromium-based browser with an awful UI and tab management system. Who uses a browser in this manner? Let me guess. Apple users, because it is different. Upon using it, I was confused and disorganized. There are barely any customization options to change the look. Why does it need an online account to use? Only for Windows 11? 700MB in size? It should be called the Arse Browser. Instead of wasting time being hipsters, some folks have real tasks to perform. This browser is bloated trash and doesn’t provide anything new, interesting, or solve any problems with the current browsers we have.
There is a “CEO”??????
>mandatory account and tracking.
So a worse Chrome, then?
If people are switching from Chrome and Edge, they are switching to more private or more adblock friendly browsers since all other Chromium based browsers do not provide noticeable performance boost. This one smell like it is less private that Chrome or Edge.
Wow that is bad form for a browser. Mandatory this and that. And probably MV3-only when that happens. Not happening on my computer.
Googled the image in thus article to find the following:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arch_of_Freedom_of_the_Ukrainian_People
https://visitukraine.today/blog/352/the-arch-of-friendship-in-kyiv-whats-next
Due to the war, the statue has been removed and the arch renamed.
Arc has clearly done an excellent job of hyping their product (for example, their use of the waitlist was a good touch to make it seem exclusive, and their PR people have also been able to get quite a bit of press at an early stage). However, I can’t even imagine why anyone would want this product installed on their computer. Based on this article, anyway, everything described here is a negative for me. Mandatory account, privacy nightmare including tracking usage, ‘features” i don’t want (gmail and outlook previews, really?, not showing the full URL without an extra click, tracking usage, sending me unwanted emails, mini audio video player that I would never want to see or hear, over complicated tab setup to disable, yet another chromium browser with google calling the tune on changes, etc., etc.)
I guess the target market is users who like opening large numbers of tabs at a time and are willing to learn a new and presumably more efficient method of tab management to accommodate that. Arc is marketing their browser as the Chrome replacement. But the vast majority of Chrome users don’t need these tab management features and will not want to learn a new method of tab management.
Also, as Martin states, the closed-source nature of the browser raises significant questions. Arc is a for-profit corporation, They have stated that user data will not be sold, but appear to be unwilling to provide information as how they intend to monetize their product. I think its very fair for people and businesses concerned with privacy to be very leery of this business model. If I was an IT director for a business, i would not allow it to be installed on user computers until I had a full understanding of Arc’s motives and privacy practices.
I will give it a pass. Thanks for the article.
Off topic:
This morning I have moved from Ubuntu to Kubuntu.
Here is why, the short reasons by the way:
IMHO Ubuntu 24.04 is a complete nightmare, it has become a monster with no sense, the ISO is enormous. I can’t understand… 6Gb of ISO that have failed to install in my system FIVE, yes, you are reading well, five times. I have downloaded three time the ISO, which means that I spent more than 18Gb of my phone data to avoid possible errors while downloading, with no success at all. Furthermore it has never got installed for me in two different computers.
I downloaded today the Kubuntu 24.04 ISO with only 3.8Gb ISO, installed at first time.
Everything is working fine, everything is now good, indeed better than expected.
What are you doing, you Ubuntu team? What the hell are you doing?
How dare you all to release such a shame s**** like this crap version?
What the hell have you added to the ISO to become a 6Gb useless file?
OMG what a shame with Canonical!
Cool story, bro… Except no one cares.
Instead of downloading three times, you could have just checked the checksum.
Linux is not suitable for such inexperienced users.
who cares?
@marc I do care, really, however imho Kubuntu 24.04 is better than Ubuntu 24.04.
I will still have to thank Ubuntu for making me to see that there were better things outside.
LOL.
and they don’t give you the full offline installation file, you have to use a fishy loader that downloads and installs stuff in the background… hard pass.
Too many weird browsers for the party, and no enough cake for all.
I still prefer my old friends for long time, Edge/Chrome/Firefox.
Each one has its good things for me, and they still rule.
Thanks for the article! :]
This browser has more red flags than a red flag convention. Er, no thanks.
“First, you are required to create an account. There is no option to skip this step”
It’s amazing that you are the first tech journalist mentioning this really important factor that most simply brush it off. All “The Verges” and what have not, simply didn’t mention it.
My interest went at the word ‘mandatory’.