Why i like Arc?

The following are my favorite things about Arc, listed in order of preference.

Command-T ​

The first place winner is indeed ⌘ T - the combination of new tab and search. When using Chrome before, I would first use ⌘ T to open a new tab, and then search for the page I wanted to go to. Upon closer inspection, it's rare that someone opens a new tab just for show; usually there is an immediate next action following it. Therefore, combining the two actually makes more sense.

On the computer, I am a heavy user of Raycast with an empty desktop; on my phone, my common way to open apps is also through searching. When writing code in VSCode, I don't deliberately memorize shortcuts but instead, search for commands. I am very accustomed to or dependent on the "search" mode. From the first day of using Raycast, I realized that accurate positioning is the key to productivity rather than aimlessly searching. Arc has such a powerful console that allows me to go anywhere.

Archive ​

From now on, there is no more Tab Management. When learning the art of housekeeping, I learned an obvious but often overlooked point: "Reduce the amount before clear." Before this, I always felt that no matter how much I cleaned and carefully arranged things, my room was still cluttered with stuff. Because there was too much quantity, I always kept unnecessary things such as delivery boxes, clothing tags, and promotional materials for specialty drinks. But after throwing them away, even though what I considered "cleaning" had not yet begun, the room immediately became tidy.

Tabs are the same way. Useful and useless tabs are mixed together, always holding onto the thought that "this one might be useful", unwilling to clean them up, but instead trying to "cleaning": carefully grouping them or settling them in a corner of bookmarks. The most common outcome is that too many tabs make me feel agitated and restless, and on some irritated mornings, I close all windows at once. But I haven't lost anything.

Arc will automatically close tabs that have not been used for 12 hours (the longest is 30 days), to be precise, they are added to the archive for your convenience in finding them again. The probability of me using a tab that has not been clicked on for 12 hours is almost zero, but there's no need to heavily "let go" every time since you can still find it if needed. Although I haven't opened the Archive once in these past few months.

Effective management requires minimal intervention.

Space ​

The significance of getting rid of the 'window curse' is extraordinary. When working with multiple threads, I would drag a certain tab out to become an independent window in order to open up a new theme. However, this will only gradually be submerged in countless windows (and countless tabs within those windows). Arc introduces the concept of Space, where instead of having multiple windows, we have multiple Spaces within the same window that are relatively independent and can even be different Profiles:

Profiles make your Spaces truly separate -- with their own history, saved passwords, and other browsing data.

No longer do you need to open ten thousand new windows to distinguish between work and personal accounts. I can also name different Spaces to summarize the corresponding line for them. This perfectly achieves the goal of opening multiple windows and using the command bar, switching is very smooth without repeatedly jumping back and forth between multiple windows.

Visual Tab Switcher ​

Mac users are already accustomed to using Command Tab to switch between applications, and Arc also uses Ctrl Tab to achieve a similar tab switcher. With previews available, it is easier to determine which tab you want to go to. Previously in Chrome, my tab bar was often so crowded that only one favicon remained, making it difficult for me to distinguish between different pages of the same website. Of course, now when hovering over a tab in Chrome, a thumbnail will also be displayed. However, for users like me who don't like using the mouse, pure keyboard operations such as the tab switcher are smoother.

Conclusion ​

When Arc first popped up a prompt to ask me whether to set it as the default browser, I was actually hesitant. It takes courage to change the habits of many years. I started with the mentality of giving it a try, and today, now, Arc, like Raycast and VsCode, has perfectly integrated into my daily workflow. There's no going back.