The team behind Mac and Windows browser Arc this week launched a complementary iPhone app called Arc Search. Infused with AI, it “browses for you” by pulling information from across the internet to create custom webpages answering your questions. This kicks off Phase 2 of Arc’s evolution as The Browser Company aims to merge browser, search, and website into one seamless experience.
A promo video showed Arc searching topics then automatically opening the top result website. For example, asking for “True Detective season 4 trailer” instantly played the YouTube trailer in a new tab. You can get multiple pages of results too – asking for “five different soup recipes” generated a folder with five recipe tabs. It’s handy but basic right now, lacking more intelligence.
Upcoming Live Folders will essentially create shareable RSS feeds, automatically updating with sites you follow. If tagged on GitHub, a new tab gets added to your GitHub Live Folder. Launching in beta February 15th, sites will likely need integration for it to work. I’m hoping it can automatically drop new posts from favorite sites into Folders without much configuring.
Most ambitious is the upcoming Arc Explore, collapsing browser, search and sites into one. Queries like restaurant reservations returned details and direct Resy booking links for specified restaurants and times. Compared to searching across ad-laden sites, Arc Explore cuts through the noise. And leveraging AI, you can have a conversation to refine results.
As an iPhone Arc Search user, I appreciate the vision, but changing ingrained browsing habits is tough. These tools will need to work extremely well on launch to replace my Google searches. Still, shaking up how we browse to improve the experience is commendable. Not every experiment will succeed, but it will be interesting to see Arc’s continuing evolution.
