They wanted us to give up on Arc and move to Dia so badly... but I can't even use Dia even if I wanted to🤷️ (unless I use a VPN every time).

Like a lot of people here I’ve been transitioning back to Safari after TBC dropped the ball on Arc. I really liked Arc's Peek feature as it was perfect for quick reads, checking a reference, or just seeing if a link is actually what you're looking for.

I wanted that exact same workflow in Safari, so I spent some free time building an extension to replicate it. It's called Peek for Safari.

You can check it out here: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6820756584

Features:

• Instant Previews: Preview links directly over your current page via Shift-Click
• Fast and private: No background trackers, analytics, or bloat. Your browsing data never leaves your device.

Limitations:

• iframe Blockers: Some sites block embedding, so they open in a popup window instead of the overlay. This is a site restriction, and I can't get around it.
• JavaScript Links: Links that a page opens with its own JavaScript, rather than a normal click, aren't intercepted.

It's a simple utility, but I'd love to hear your thoughts, feedback, or any bug reports if you decide to give it a try. It's free right now while I gather initial feedback. I may make it a small one-time purchase later to cover Apple's App Store fees, but if you download it now, you keep it permanently. (Sorry for the potato recording...)

Hi all, I'm not going to continue to cry over the loss of Arc. I love it and I tried every single other browser out there. Nothing comes close. Dia's not bad but we just didn't click if I'm being honest. there's just something about Arc that's just become a part of my day to day. I can't even explain it. So instead of crying about it here, I'm really thinking about rebuilding it from scratch. And I don't want to make another browser and add features to it. I just want Arc back. Same exact features. What I want to test out is: anyone willing to pay for the build I'm going to put out there? It's going to take me a couple of weeks to get "something" out there for everyone to test with me. But it would be encouraging to know that I can make a few $$ in the process. LMK! I'll start with mac first tbh not windows.

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I get why people are sad about Arc shutting down, but we shouldn’t rush into adopting whatever alternative pops up on Twitter.
It feels like a lot of new browsers are being churned out through vibe coding lately, and some of the promotion around them feels opportunistic. A polished interface and a viral thread don’t automatically make a browser trustworthy. Using AI to write code isn’t inherently bad, but who’s reviewing that code, maintaining the browser, and keeping up with security updates?
Personally, the alternatives I feel comfortable with are Helium, Zen, Brave, and even Dia, although I’m not particularly happy with Josh’s decisions.
That doesn’t mean every other browser is unsafe. Just be careful

Started using Arc 3 and half years ago and loved every moment of it. Converted many people to it and had so many "Wow why are your tabs on the left?" moments that I seized to explain why it's the best.

But here we are, soon to be gone. Knew it for while but still hurts migrating everything to Zen Browser (used Arc to Zen 2 btw it's great and almost instant).

The biggest weird things is moving from Chrome based to Firefox based but I guess its quite a friction less process since the two browser are so similar.

Abandoning Arc for Dia will go down in history as the perfect example of doing what the market wants and promotes while leaving what people loved behind.

Still you were the best and started many like you, farewell Arc Browser.

See Josh’s above post. We aren’t the priority. That’s WHY they made Dia in the first place. To think we will be prioritized at Dia is self deception. It makes sense to go with a browser built for serious users, whichever one you choose.

For those who remember 🌞✌️

I recently heard about it, just wish I could of experienced it.

Don’t.

I know you are frustrated with how things have gone with Arc. I fell in love with it too.

Maintaining a browser, even with chromium is a difficult thing. Especially these days with a proliferation of zero day exploits.

Even if you are a strong developer browsers are difficult and VERY high risk. Do you want to be responsible for someone’s email getting hacked and identity stolen?

I am not looking forward to the adjustment, but I k ow it must be done

i tried Zen a while back and it was nice and i almost fully made the switch just to find out there are no profiles. I thought containers were their arc equivalent but no, I share the same browsing data (history, cache) not sure about passwords across various all spaces which rendered spaces useless to me.

I've seen discussions where people talk about zen, other arc alt or just their reasons for not switching etc but no one ever mentions profiles.

Makes me wonder how many people actually makes use of this feature. I also remember the CEO in their mention of reasons why they are no longer working on arc mentioning lack of people using spaces but i wonder if they meant profiles instead

Okay, as long as no money looks like TBC never hear us. I think most people will be okay to pay between $19-$29 per year for a browser. We don't need any AI features or any heavy development work.

Just to keep the browser alive I am pretty sure you will earn much more than Dia.

Most people (including me) never pay Dia and its ai features, especially its from a company who has killing its best product.

Not much say.

There are also many other people who have been using this browser for longer than I have but we have the same feelings.

arc's export data (settings, advanced) is handy but it writes a markdown file, "Arc Data Export.md", with a section per space and its links. no browser imports that as bookmarks, so getting your folders back somewhere else from it is a bit of a pain

the full sidebar (spaces, pinned tabs, folders inside folders) lives in one file, StorableSidebar.json. it's local, but on windows uninstalling arc wipes the folder it's in, and idk what the last update before shutdown does. so copy it now even if you haven't picked where you're going yet

mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Arc/StorableSidebar.json (finder, go to folder)

windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\, then the folder starting with TheBrowserCompany.Arc, then LocalCache\Local\Arc\

it's just a json file so the backup costs nothing. a few people here have made converters that turn it into a normal bookmarks file (I made one too, link in the comments if anyone wants it)

what else are you all trying to get out before it shuts down? easels, notes, boosts?

I think what I want most for an Arc replacement - knowing nothing out there is a perfect replacement - are the tabs and spaces. However, I see security concerns floating around and don't know enough about what an actual vulnerability is to really determine which option is best.

Zen, crest, yab, etc are obviously being thrown around a lot, but which of the zillion Arc clones is actually the most secure?

how to do call the pop up window when clicking a link in page?

when I'm reading an email or browsing a webpage in Arc, and I click on a link, it opens a kind of temporary window, not a new tab, not a new bookmark, just a temporary window that allows me to read the content and close it, going back to the original site/email.

I have enjoyed this way of reading links in Arc, and cannot find any of the substitutes I have tried that behaves the same way... maybe I'm missing some configuration, but I don't know the name of this function/behavior.

any help? thanks,

I think TBC really overestimated how loyal their users are. People arent loyal to TBC or Dia, they are loyal to Arc.

I think this decision has probably gotten them boycotted by most people, cus let's face it... Dia is ass. They tried to fix something that wasn’t broken. Arc didn’t even need constant updates for people to love it. People stuck around because it was genuinely a good browser.

I think now that they’ve sunset Arc and just expect everyone to move to Dia, this might be the beginning of the end for them.

it genuinely boils my blood when companies don't even try to understand their user bases' wishes.

Like a lot of people here, I spent the last few days looking for somewhere to go after Arc. Sharing what I found in case it saves someone some time.

What I tried:

• Yab — feels the closest to Arc; you can tell the developer is putting real care into recreating its features and UX. Still rough around the edges, but very promising, and I'm keeping an eye on it.
• Crest — interesting, but not quite ready for my daily use yet.
• Aside — same story: good ideas, not stable enough yet.
• Zen — this is where I ended up. It's been developed as an open alternative to Arc for two and a half years now, and compared to the rest it feels the most mature and stable.

Honestly, moving to a Firefox fork wasn't my dream, but I haven't found a decent Chromium option for myself yet. You work with what you've got.

The worst part turned out to be the move itself. Zen's built-in import brings over almost nothing from Arc: no spaces, no pinned tabs or folders, no per-profile logins. I couldn't find much in the way of ready-made tools either. So I took a small migration script from GitHub (https://github.com/Thinkscape/arc-to-zen — thanks to its author for the starting point) and spent a few evenings on it, with a lot of help from Claude, until it moved everything I needed: spaces with their icons and colors, pinned tabs and folders, profiles as containers along with cookies and passwords, boosts, and Air Traffic Control rules. I also gave it a proper interface so you don't have to deal with the command line, plus a Zen backup with rollback in case something goes wrong.

It saved me a ton of time, so I've made it public in case it helps someone else who also picked Zen. It works on macOS and Windows, it's free and MIT-licensed:

nosefu.github.io/arc-to-zen

I'd appreciate any feedback

Ever since Arc stopped getting feature releases, we've had a major OS redesign with macOS Tahoe. I am confused as to why the clones choose to copy Arc's outdated UI which was intended to adhere to macOS Big Sur's design language.
Should they have followed Liquid Glass button styles and decades-long HIG, they'd have landed pretty close to the Weather app, which in my opinion looks very good.

Hang on… so… iOS users get to keep Arc Browser on their phones if they want to use a ‘lite’ version of the browser without the account and AI features which is fine you have that choice… but Android users they’ve just given one big middle finger and are straight up force removing it from your phone? Removing your only product currently available on mobile devices in favour of a PC/Mac exclusive and severing a lot of your Arc loyal customers.

This honestly sucks because this is the feature I actually used the most in my daily life, I open a ton of tabs and therefore to organise it I loved having a button which just organised it (although not perfectly always, but quite good enough). Sucks that they are stopping features which used to work as soon as the announcement.

Then I will look at the alternatives. Also, I'm working. I don't have the time nor the wherewithal to alpha and beta test other browsers or retrain myself on a new set up.

ARC will at least work until I head into vacation for the holidays. I suspect that by mid-December one of the six (seven?) alternatives will have risen to the top with the features I rely on: pinned sites, folders of pinned sites, pinned favorites, spaces, siloed profiles with their own plugins, 4x tab split views, Little ARC, Chrome underpinnings, and a pretty color of my choice for each profile.

Also, there should be a new flair added "FtTBC" 😈