These New Arc Al Features Will Change How You Browse the Internet
AI is already integrated in popular browsers like Microsoft Edge and Opera One, and an extension will bring it to any browser. But a simple ChatGPT sidebar can only go so far. That’s why it’s cool to see the...
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AI is already integrated in popular browsers like Microsoft Edge and Opera One, and an extension will bring it to any browser. But a simple ChatGPT sidebar can only go so far. That’s why it’s cool to see the Arc browser doing something different with Arc Max, its new set of thoughtful little AI features.
As we’ve covered before, Arc is one of the most well-designed Mac browsers, and the new AI features, introduced in the new 1.11.0 update, only make it more so. Once you enable Arc Max from Settings (in the dedicated Max tab), you won’t really notice anything different. There is no flashing icon, no big sidebar, nothing to catch your attention.
Instead, you’ll start to see these features as you browse. Hover over a link for five seconds, and Arc will show you a simple bullet-point summary of the article powered by AI. Simple, but I already find myself hovering over links on Twitter (X) rather than clicking through to the site. AI is also integrated in page search in an effective way. Press Command + F, and you’ll see an Ask button in the search bar. Here, you can ask a question about anything on the page, and Arc will return with a written response (as well as an option to do a regular page search).
There are two excellent additions in the sidebar, too. Pin a tab, and Arc will automatically rename it to something short but to the point. In addition, the browser renames downloads to make them easier to understand.
While there isn’t ChatGPT integration here, there is a shortcut to it. Open the Command palette with Command + T, type in “ChatGPT,” and Arc will directly open the ChatGPT website with your answer. It would be nice if ChatGPT worked natively in-app, as it does in paid products like Raycast, but it’s a nice touch if you’re mostly using the free ChatGPT website for answers.
Arc is different from other apps adding AI to their products in this moment. Instead of forcing you to use them, these features are opt-in, and will only be available for 30 days. Following this trial, Arc will ask users to vote for the features that they want to keep. All I hope is that they keep the five-second preview, and Ask on page features. They both make my life much easier.
