I’ve been using Arc since its beta days, and it’s been my go-to browser ever since I ditched Google Chrome. It honestly changed the way I work and improved my workflow in a lot of small but meaningful ways. So it’s needless to say, I was pretty disappointed when they announced that feature updates were being dropped and Arc was essentially being put in maintenance mode.

That said, I’ve seen Zen gaining a lot of popularity lately, especially among Arc users looking for something fresh. After seeing so many people making the switch, I had to give it a proper shot myself, but I was left a bit disappointed.

5 Little Arc is still the cleanest way to open links

Please leave my tabs alone

My favorite Arc feature has always been Little Arc. It sounds like a small thing on paper, but once you get used to it, it is hard to live without. It doesn’t clutter my browser with random tabs or windows every time I click a link from somewhere else. Instead, it opens a clean little pop-up window that lets me deal with the link separately without messing with my workflow. It is much more convenient than opening a new tab and leaving it open unnecessarily.

Even outside Arc, if I click a link from Slack or an email, normally, it will throw me straight into my browser, mess with my open tabs, and break my focus completely. With Little Arc, it opens the link in a smaller window, lets me check whatever I need to, and I can close it without even touching my main Arc space.

4 Streaming content is still a problem on Zen

A modern browser should not struggle with this

Another thing that completely threw me off when trying Zen was how it handles DRM-protected content, or rather, how it doesn’t handle it properly yet. Most major streaming platforms like Netflix or Prime Video rely on Widevine DRM to protect their content from piracy. Without proper Widevine support, your experience is very limited. Some platforms refuse to load entirely, some give you a black screen, and even if they do work, you are often stuck at 720p.

I ran into this when I was trying to watch Formula 1, as the stream loaded, but I could not get past 720p no matter what I tried. Steaming content is such a core part of using a browser that it honestly didn’t even cross my mind that this would be an issue, and it took me a while to figure out what was wrong.

To be fair, Zen is an open-source project, and getting a Widevine license is expensive and complicated for smaller teams. But that does not change the fact that if streaming doesn’t work properly, most people simply will not use the browser.

3 AI features I actually rely on

I hate most AI tools, but I kind of like these

I am usually the first person to visibly sigh when I see new gimmicky AI features being crammed into every single product these days. But I have to admit, Arc actually has some really neat ones that I find myself using all the time.

By far, my favorite is Tidy Tabs, which automatically rearranges all my open tabs into separate sections. It keeps everything organized without me having to do anything. Arc even renames my downloads into something more sensible, so I don’t end up with random files named gibberish like "Screenshot 2025-07-02 at 12.43.52."

Another feature I really like is Ask on Page, which comes in super handy when I can’t find an exact match for a phrase using Control + F. Instead of giving up or manually scanning the whole page, I can just ask Arc to find what I am looking for in plain language, and most of the time, it actually works.

2 Arc’s integrations make a huge difference

Gmail, Notion, Calendar… everything just fits in

Arc integrates so well with the websites I use daily that these little features actually feel like first-party additions rather than something bolted on. It adds subtle touches that make apps like Gmail or Notion feel properly connected to the browser itself.

A great example is how when I hover over a tab for Gmail or Notion, I get these neat little previews that show me what’s happening without even switching tabs. It sounds small, but once you get used to it, you realize how much time it saves.

When I’m on a Google Meet, it automatically pops out the call into a floating picture-in-picture window with microphone and camera controls, so I can still move around and do other things while keeping the meeting in view. There are a lot of little things like this that keep adding up, and after a point, the overall experience just doesn’t feel the same on any other browser.

1 Easels became my main idea board

It’s basically MS Paint built into my browser

I barely see other Arc users talk about Easels, but honestly, I think it’s one of the most underrated parts of the browser. If you don’t know what Easels are, they’re basically little idea boards inside your browser where you can throw together notes, screenshots, links, or whatever random stuff you’re working on. Having that built into Arc meant one less app to deal with, and I ended up using it way more than I expected.

Whenever I’m collecting links, screenshots, or just trying to plan something messy in my head, Easels became the place where I’d dump everything. It’s not trying to be an all-in-one tool like Notion, but for quick notes or rough ideas, it’s perfect. I only realized how convenient that was after I stopped using Arc and instantly missed it.

I am staying on Arc for now, but I will have to switch eventually

I never thought a browser like Arc could completely change the way I work. As much as I love it and still use it as my main browser, I know I’ll probably have to move on sooner or later. Arc isn’t getting real feature updates anymore, only Chromium patches, and the company has shifted focus to their new AI browser, Dia, which is still in beta but looks promising. But there are plenty of other reasons to start looking for alternatives to Arc as well.

For now, I am sticking with Arc because of the little things it still does better, but it is only a matter of time before I have to make the switch.