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New Arc User

I've just installed Arc browser and will see how I get on. It will be interesting to see whether it helps organise things and improve my workflows.

I'm always keen to try new things so who knows, maybe it will become my browser of choice.

I'd be interested to hear of things that might be useful to know about Arc, hints and tips to improve my experience.

Edit: Ok so I've had a chance to play around with this browser fora little while and so far it's great. Spaces are great, split views I love (hellooooo CHatGPT and whatever I'm working on in the same tab) and I'm looking forward to trying out Profiles.

I've just got to hope when I install it on my work laptop the IT department don't get wind of it LOL

3 comments

whynotzoidberg

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Check in time! How has it been going for you?

I intended to briefly share my experience, but then I got on a roll. Here's my eval:

I've been using Arc for a couple of months now. But lately I've been toying with the idea of going back. Why?

Extensions. I really, really, really wish I could see my password manager in plain view. Arc has a problem of limited screen real estate; instead of showing extensions, they choose to show buttons for spaces (and big buttons for "Favorites").
Tab sync. It's not super confusing, but it's a little confusing, having pinned tabs sync but other tabs not sync. Especially when Arc is going to auto-archive tabs for me. It creates a chaotic experience.

Things I'll miss if I go back!

Little Arc. I love it. It's quick and what I need often times, for both in-page links and .webloc files I have in various places. The only problem Little Arc has is it is single-instanced; that makes it hard to use as my solution for PWA shortcuts on the desktop.
Mobile Arc. It's a neat way to implement mobile. I dig it.

Things that didn't matter too much, but I'll call out:

I miss having a downloads button easily view- and click-able. Why? I like to see progress % and speed at a glance.
The window borders are thicc. I used to change Windows registry settings to have thin window borders.
The "add split" buttons at the top right are too easy to click on, and accidentally splitting a window can kill your progress in a web form.
Settings don't sync between instances. This sucks for me because I manually remap Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab to sequential switching rather than "last used", and I have to manually remap that on all my Arc installs.

editted for formatting

rarkgrames

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I'm liking Arc so far. It's not perfect for work use as I need to be able to see much more in the URL bar, but for personal use it's now my daily driver. Being able to have spaces for personal and project work is really handy and I like the boosts feature.

It's not perfect but I'm sure it will improve over time so I'm going to stick with it for the time being and see.

whynotzoidberg

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Nice! I find myself using Win+L more than I expected, to see (or copy) the URL.

I think you're right about the improvements; they've been shipping quick updates and focussing on user feedback. It's fun to watch and use as things change.