The Browser Firm is sunsetting its design-forward Arc browser on December 22, 2026, and directing customers to Dia, its AI-first browser. The corporate introduced the choice on Thursday, citing the rising value of retaining a browser safe within the age of AI.
“Preserving a browser safe takes fixed, devoted work that’s solely rising within the age of AI,” the corporate wrote.
“Dia was constructed from the bottom as much as meet at the moment’s safety requirements, in order that’s the place our engineering and safety groups will focus shifting ahead.”
The wind-down is staged into three elements. As of Thursday, new Arc accounts can not be created. On November 23, Arc Search on iOS and Android will lose its AI options, together with “Browse for Me.” Customers will not have the ability to check in or sync tabs, although the app will proceed functioning as a fundamental native browser.
On December 22, Arc will cease working solely on Mac and Home windows. Accounts will likely be deactivated, and private information will likely be deleted inside 30 days. Arc Search may even be faraway from the Google Play Retailer.
Whereas The Browser Firm claims Dia now surpasses Arc in pace, stability, and safety benchmarks, consumer reactions on social media have been largely disappointed, with many reviving requests for the corporate to make Arc open supply.
However CEO Josh Miller beforehand pointed out that Arc is constructed on the Arc Improvement Equipment (ADK) — a proprietary inside SDK that can also be the core engine powering Dia. Open-sourcing Arc would imply freely giving Dia’s mental property.
“Whereas we’d like to open-source Arc sometime, we are able to’t do this meaningfully with out additionally open-sourcing ADK,” Miller beforehand famous. “And ADK remains to be core to our firm’s worth.”
For customers making the swap, Dia will carry over equivalents of a number of core Arc options. Customers can nonetheless swipe between totally different work and private environments utilizing Dia’s “Profiles” (previously Arc’s Areas). Arc’s signature vertical tabs will stay as an non-obligatory sidebar format, whereas Folders have been rebranded as “Pinned Tab Teams.”
Passwords, bookmarks, extensions, and historical past will seamlessly switch to Dia. Arc options will stay free in Dia, with AI non-obligatory.
The shutdown formally closes a chapter that started in 2025, when the startup stopped active feature improvement on Arc. The Browser Firm — which was acquired by Atlassian for $610 million in 2025 — conceded on the time that whereas early adopters cherished the browser’s novel interface, the “novelty tax” and complexity restricted mainstream adoption. Arc was fiercely beloved by a devoted group of fanatics, but it surely by no means fairly turned the mass-market Chrome different its makers as soon as envisioned.
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