5 reasons to ditch Safari for new web browser Arc
Safari is a great browser for macOS and iOS, but there is now a new player that makes it very attractive to switch. This is why you should ditch Safari for Arc.
Read on after the ad.
Arc vs. Safari: A new way to surf the web
“We know you don’t need a new browser, so we built a whole new way to use the internet.” With that promise, Arc introduces itself to new users. The web browser is still a bit secretive, as right now you can only access it by invitation or by queuing yourself. Yet more and more users say they never want anything else.
Arc started out as a web browser for macOS, so the browser puts itself directly opposite Safari. An app for iOS is now also available. But what makes Arc so special?
1. Arc finally has a solution for tabs
When you use your browser like I do, you always have a lot of tabs open. The next day you have to start with a completely empty browser, otherwise it is impossible.
Arc offers a solution through Spaces. A Space is a specific part of your online life, such as your job, a passion project, personal affairs, and so on. In a Space you can pin tabs that you want to look at later and place favorites with tabs that you visit often. At the end of the day, the tabs you haven’t pinned are automatically archived. You can always find them in the archive.
By dividing the internet into Spaces, you automatically organize all those tabs, you don’t open duplicate tabs unnecessarily and you are less likely to be distracted.
Due to current browsers, you are probably used to everything happening at the top. There you will find the address bar, your bookmarks and so on. Arc has put everything in a sidebar and that offers a lot more space to organize your online life.
In this sidebar you will find the three fixed parts per Space: favorites, pinned tabs and today’s tabs. You can easily make this sidebar disappear and reappear with a shorcut.
In addition to the sidebar, there is also a command bar, which you reach by pressing command+t. This command bar is the starting point for searching the internet, opening a new tab or switching to a tab that is already open.
3. You can do several things at once
Instead of having to work with multiple windows when you want to open two pages side by side, Arc allows you to show two tabs in ‘split view’. To do this, drag a tab from your sidebar to the middle.
The mini player is also useful. For example, if you watch a video on YouTube and switch to another tab, the video will appear in a mini-player so that you can continue watching while doing something else. Clicking on that video will take you back to the tab where the video is playing.
Sometimes you want to view the information of another website, without opening a whole tab immediately. Arc has come up with previews for that. To do this, move your mouse over your favorites and you will get a preview of the information. This works with Gmail, Notion, Figma and more.
You can call up the aforementioned command bar from any other app via a shortcut, after which you can quickly pick something from a mini browser. Little Arc is called this little browser.
4. More creative options
The browser also has some built-in tools to get creative. This way you can easily make notes that you share with others via a URL.
Especially interesting is Easel: a kind of scrapbook of things you find on the internet. Here you can post screenshots of a website, among other things. These screenshots are not just pictures, but actually link to the website the image is from. You can also add text, drawings and more.
5. You can import everything
When setting up Arc, you can directly import all data from Safari (or Chrome). Handy, because this gives you immediate access to all your favorite bookmarks, among other things.
Note: the iOS app is not yet complete
An iOS app from Arc was also recently released. This is still an early version and does not yet replace your favorite iOS browser. However, you can use everything you’ve created and saved in Arc on macOS, such as your favorites, Easels, and so on.
Arc | Mobile Companion
The Browser Company of New York
Arc is still under development, so you should really see this as the start for this browser. However, this start is already so good that we are eagerly awaiting what else The Browser Company has in store for us.
Read more: this is how you make the internet on your iPhone faster again.
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