Arc

Arc is a Chromium browser with a different idea of what tabs are. Tabs live in a sidebar, grouped into spaces, and each space can belong to a different profile with its own logins. Close a tab and it goes to an archive rather than nowhere. It sounds cosmetic and it is not; it changes how many things you can have open before your head hurts.

How I use it

One space per project. Each has its pinned tabs at the top: the dashboard, the docs, the repo, the spreadsheet. When I switch projects I switch spaces, and the tabs of the thing I was doing before stay exactly as I left them, out of sight. Profiles sit underneath: a space for a client-facing account uses that profile, so I am never logged into the wrong account in the wrong tab. That used to cost me real mistakes in other browsers, and it has not happened once here.

The sidebar is the other half. With tabs as a vertical list instead of shrinking rectangles, I can read their titles at forty tabs, and the auto-archive quietly removes the ones I forgot. My tab count is no longer a source of shame.

What surprised me is how fast it became unthinkable to go back. I open a conventional browser now and the tab strip looks like a ransom note.

What annoys me: the company stopped building Arc in 2025 and moved on to a new browser. Arc still gets Chromium updates, so it is not unsafe, but nothing new will come, and a known bug stays known. The successor is a different product with a different bet, and migrating would mean giving up the thing I came for. Memory use with several spaces open is heavy, and the first launch of the day takes a breath.

Who it is for

Anyone juggling multiple projects or accounts in one browser. If you have ten tabs and one login, your current browser is fine and you should not care. If you live in the browser, it is worth trying even now, with the understanding that you are moving into a house the owners have left.