Thoughts on Arc Browser
chrishannah.me
Thoughts on Arc Browser
1–10 of 87 posts
Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser
#2Giving all my passwords, bookmarks and possibly browser history and credit card information to a closed source browser from an unknown company sounds too risky for me. How do they even plan to make money?
Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser
#3On the other side of this, I've been using Arc for ~4 months now, and there are definitely quirks, but overall I've been quite happy with it.
One of the primary complaints in the post is password syncing, and I'm not sure that's a fair knock against Arc since it seems like OP would struggle to switch to any browser that's not Safari (and they say as much just generally in the conclusion).
> I use iCloud Keychain for passwords on all of my devices, and of course, my bookmarks are synced via Safari. So when I tried to use Arc, nothing was in sync.
My experience was much better since I use 1Password. The extension was a little clumsy at first, but I gave the feedback and things were improved in the next release and I haven't had any issues since. Really any third party password manager with a Chrome extension should work fine.
Arc is weird, it's a different way of thinking about a browser. I've personally enjoyed it, but I can totally see why others wouldn't. The tl;dr of the post is "if you just want Safari you'll be happier with Safari" and I think that's a totally fair assessment.
Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser
#4Giving all my passwords, bookmarks and possibly browser history and credit card information to a closed source browser from an unknown company sounds too risky for me. How do they even plan to make money?
That's a good point about monetisation. I did wonder how they plan on making money, but to be honest, I didn't do much research on that topic.
Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser
#5On the other side of this, I've been using Arc for ~4 months now, and there are definitely quirks, but overall I've been quite happy with it. One of the primary complaints in the post is password syncing, and I'm not sure that's a fair knock against Arc since it seems like OP would struggle to switch to any browser that's not Safari (and they say as much just generally in the conclusion). > I use iCloud Keychain for…
It's good to see someone enjoying Arc. It's definitely taking a fresh look at what a web browser should be. Just turns out it wasn't for me.
Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser
#6Have never tried arc. Commenting on the article, not the browser.
> For a moment I was mesmerised by its features, how it behaved, and the quirkiness of it.
I think the most important job for a browser is to stay in the background and let the user focus on the website. Chrome does this beautifully. It's elegant, but not eye-catching. It takes up little space for its own UI, and leaves most space to the website.
> At the start, I would use the command bar to quickly make a web search, open a new tab, (try to) launch an existing tab by entering the name of the page, and even perform actions like pinning the current tab.
These are all things you can already do in the addressbar, except for opening a new tab, which is just as easy as opening the command bar.
Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser
#7On the other side of this, I've been using Arc for ~4 months now, and there are definitely quirks, but overall I've been quite happy with it. One of the primary complaints in the post is password syncing, and I'm not sure that's a fair knock against Arc since it seems like OP would struggle to switch to any browser that's not Safari (and they say as much just generally in the conclusion). > I use iCloud Keychain for…
Similar here, I've been using Arc for a couple of weeks and I'm pretty happy with it. I really enjoy the way it handles tabs, spaces and profiles.
Personally, I use 1Password for passwords & credit cards, and Raindrops.io for bookmarks, so jumping between browsers were fairly smooth for me.
Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser
#8Have never tried arc. Commenting on the article, not the browser. > For a moment I was mesmerised by its features, how it behaved, and the quirkiness of it. I think the most important job for a browser is to stay in the background and let the user focus on the website. Chrome does this beautifully. It's elegant, but not eye-catching. It takes up little space for its own UI, and leaves most space to the website. > At…
> I think the most important job for a browser is to stay in the background and let the user focus on the website.
Actually, this is my favorite part about Arc. Most of the time when using Arc I'm working in fullscreen mode with 100% of the UI hidden. There is literally zero on my screen except the page itself. If I mouseover to the left (or hit cmd-S) I can see the sidebar/addressbar etc.
It's absolutely wonderful and really puts the focus on the content. I find it much better than how Chrome handles fullscreen.
Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser
#9I love that it deletes all the tabs I've opened and not interacted with recently. I needed that in my life. When FF incorporates that and putting tabs on the side, I'll switch back. I don't really care about the rest Arc's got going on.
Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser
#10Have never tried arc. Commenting on the article, not the browser. > For a moment I was mesmerised by its features, how it behaved, and the quirkiness of it. I think the most important job for a browser is to stay in the background and let the user focus on the website. Chrome does this beautifully. It's elegant, but not eye-catching. It takes up little space for its own UI, and leaves most space to the website. > At…
> I think the most important job for a browser is to stay in the background and let the user focus on the website. Actually, this is my favorite part about Arc. Most of the time when using Arc I'm working in fullscreen mode with 100% of the UI hidden. There is literally zero on my screen except the page itself. If I mouseover to the left (or hit cmd-S) I can see the sidebar/addressbar etc. It's absolutely wonderful a…
If you haven't tried, after you use Cmd-Ctrl-F to make Chrome fullscreen you can use Cmd-Shift-F to toggle the UI elements (tabs, search bar & bookmark bar). Although it doesn't follow your mouse hover which is somehow annoying.