Arc Search for Android is the Chrome replacement you’ve been looking for

I make no bones about shouting to the world that my default browser on MacOS is Arc. It’s superior to Chrome in every way. It has better tab management, a modern UI, built-in AI, and all the features you’ve grown accustomed to using.

To date, however, Arc has only been available for MacOS (and Windows, which I do not use). All of that changes soon, with the release of Arc Search for Android. (There’s also an iOS version.)

Also: I’m a browser expert and Arc is my default for MacOS. Here are two new reasons why

Arc Search? Is it a browser or a search tool?

It’s a browser, yes, but its primary interface is a search tool. Here’s what Arc Search does:

• Searches for you: Tap Browse For Me and Arc Search will search the web, read several pages, and build a tab specific for you.
• Clears the clutter:  Arc Search auto-archives old tabs and blocks ads, trackers, and banners.
• Works efficiently: When you open Arc Search, the keyboard opens automatically, so you’re ready to search right away.
• Removes distractions: Arc Search places Reader Mode front and center.
• Remains out of the way: Arc Search uses a bare minimum UI, so the browser doesn’t get in the way of what you’re viewing.

I jumped on the beta bandwagon for Arc Search on Android and my first reaction was an audible “Wow!”

When you open Arc Search, all you see is a search bar and a keyboard. Type either a search string or a URL, then tap the looking glass icon, and Arc Search will do what it does. 

The first thing I did was to bop on over to zdnet.com to see what’s what and a smile instantly spread across my face. Instead of seeing the ZDNET website encased in a typical browser window, the site took up the entire display of my Pixel 9 Pro. Unless I scrolled up, there were no browser controls whatsoever. Even when you scroll up, you only see the tab overview button (far left), the new tab button (center), and the ^ character, which opens the settings pop-up for the site on display.

Scroll down and all you see is a website and it is glorious. Do understand that I prefer minimalism to a cluttered home screen or app — and Arc Search delivers this to perfection.

Also: This new iPhone app fuses AI with web search, saving you time and energy

As of this first beta release, Arch Search for Android is missing the AI components. However, the release does include the built-in ad blocker (which is enabled by default and works quite well). With the iOS version of Arc Search, you can open a page and do a pinch gesture to get an AI-generated summary of the article. The Android version doesn’t have that feature — yet. Of course, this is a beta release, so expect features to be added before the full release.

If you want to test the beta version of Arc Search, you can install it from the Google Play store. After using this browser for a day, I set it as my default because I like it that much.

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