Andy Walker / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Active development on the Arc browser has stopped.
- The Browser Company is now shifting its focus to a new product called Dia.
- Arc isn’t shutting down, but the team is no longer building new features for it.
Last year, The Browser Company announced that it would shift its focus from its innovative Arc browser to a new product. However, as the team worked on this new project, they also planned to continue working on Arc. Now active development on Arc has ceased.
In a blog post, CEO Josh Miller writes that his company has stopped active development on the Arc browser. The company isn’t shutting Arc down, but they are no longer building new features for the browser. However, they will still do regular updates to fix bugs and vulnerabilities.
According to Miller, Arc fell short of expectations because “for most people, Arc was simply too different, with too many new things to learn, for too little reward.” He also believes that the browser “lacked cohesion — in both its core features and core value.”
As mentioned earlier, the company has pivoted to a new product. True to the company name, this new product is also a browser, and its name is Dia. What separates Dia from Arc is that this browser is centered around AI. Miller explains that his company sees Dia “as an opportunity to fix what we got wrong with Arc.” Dia is currently being tested in alpha, but the company plans to open up access to Arc members at a later date.
Miller also touches a little on Arc’s future. Apparently, the company considered selling the software or going open source. Although going open source would likely make a lot of users happy, it would be a difficult decision for The Browser Company. The reason is that Arc is built on top of an internal SDK that Dia also relies on, so going open source with Arc would also mean going open source with Dia. While the company decided against these options for now, it hasn’t ruled out these possibilities in the future.
