Arc Browser is a newcomer in a fiercely competitive browsing space that’s gaining much attention. The Browser Company of New York, creator of the Arc browser recently secured a $50M funding at a valuation of $550M which hints at potential of this browser.
While some of its design choices have sparked debate (like the unchangeable vertical tab bar and reassignment of the ‘Cmd+T’ shortcut), most users seem to like it. This positive feedback is one reason the company’s expanding Arc to Microsoft Windows.
I started using Arc two months ago and I’m already a big fan. I previously used Microsoft Edge, which I enjoyed, but Arc does certain things so well that I finally decided to switch. It’s been a great decision so far, and I appreciate the unique features it offers.
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Features
Most of its unique features are well documented by others but here are some of the tips and tricks I’ve picked up while using Arc in my daily workflow. I hope you will find them useful too!
Opening links
- hold
Cmd(⌘) to open links in a new tab - hold
Shift(⇧) to open them in a floating window - hold
Option(⌥) to open them in split view (you can switch between the split windows usingCtrl + Shift + [).
Change the look of a website
Arc has a cool feature called Boost that lets you quickly change how a website looks. With Boost, you can do things like change the font, adjust colors, and even get rid of annoying stuff on the page.
If you’re good with coding, you can also use CSS to customize specific parts of the page.
Boost solves some very niche problems. For example, if you like some websites in dark mode and others in light mode, but can’t find a customizable dark mode plugin, Boosts can help. Just go the website and tweak them to your liking. The websites will then always open in the new look.
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Boosts also lets you remove things you don’t want to see on a page, like shorts and recommendations on YouTube.
For instance, on my YouTube page, I’ve removed the recommended videos from the sidebar, so I can stay focused while watching coding tutorials.
Another handy use for Boost is when you’re viewing multiple tabs in split screen mode. Web pages can get cramped in split screen, pushing the main content down and making it hard to read. To fix this, I zap away the extra stuff like headers and sidebars, leaving just the main content visible.
There’s a whole host of options with Boost, so keep your eyes open for when you could take advantage of it!
Multiple account login
Arc lets you create and switch between multiple profiles effortlessly, just by flicking two fingers. Each profile keeps everything separate – like extensions, bookmarks, history, cache, and even cookies.
This means you can stay logged in to one Gmail account on one profile and another account on a different profile. It’s like having two separate Arc browsers installed on your device.
I’ve set up two profiles on my system: one for regular browsing and another for coding and development. I did this mainly because I need different extensions for each task. Plus, I want to keep my browsing history clean, so searching in one space only gives me relevant results.
Wrap up
These are the features I use the most. I’ll add more to the list as they release new useful features.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to reach out to me on Twitter if you have any questions or suggestions.