Windows client for Arc browser launches in beta

The Browser Company launched its Windows client beta today, onboarding the first users. After Arc made the Mac client public after being invite-only since 2022, users and observers have demanded a Windows version.

The company will “rapidly” increase invite rollouts in January and onboard more beta users throughout the month. The company reported over 500,000 Windows waitlist users.

The startup, backed by Thrive Capital, didn’t say if the Windows and Mac clients had feature parity. It is porting Peek (webpage preview on hovering) and Mini Arc. Expect some launch features to be missing.

Josh Miller and Hursh Agrawal, the founders, discussed releasing a Windows version in 2023 last year. Swift-based browsers were launched on the platform with a few days left in the year.

The core team for building on Windows included product engineering lead Alexandra Medway, former VP of Chrome Darin Fischer, and former Facebook engineer and Swift on Windows expert Saleem Abdulrasool. While developing, the company is trying to open-source Windows code.

This year was busy for Arc Browser. In April, the company released an iPhone browser companion app that lets users save webpages in workspaces and access them later from the desktop client. A tool to tweak web pages and remove elements, like X’s user suggestion box, was released in May. It finally added an AI-based file and pinned tab renaming, a page summary preview, and command bar ChatGPT access in October. Arc users could share folders, spaces, and split views with non-Arc users later that month.