BrowserCompany announced today that its Windows client will launch in beta today and will welcome its first users. Users and observers have been clamoring for a Windows version of Arc, especially since the company has been making the Mac client available to everyone on an invitation-only model since 2022.
The company said it will add more beta users throughout the month and will add invitation-only versions "quickly" in January. The company said there are more than 500,000 users on the Windows candidate list.
The ThriveCaptial-backed startup didn't say whether the Windows client will feature exactly the same functionality as the Mac client. But it mentioned that features such as Peek (previewing web pages on hover) and MiniArc are currently being ported. Therefore, expect some features to be missing at launch.
Last year, founders Josh Miller and Hursh Agrawal said a Windows version would be launched in 2023. In just a few days, the company will launch a Swift-based browser on the platform.
The company mentioned that the core team developing on the Windows platform includes product engineering lead Alexandra Medway, former Chrome vice president Darin Fischer, and former Facebook engineer and SwiftonWindows expert Saleem Abdulrasool. In parallel with development, the company is also working on open source for Windows.
Arc Browser has had a very busy year. In April this year, the company launched an iPhone companion app for the browser, allowing users to save web pages in different workspaces and access them later from the desktop client. In May, the company released a tool that lets users tweak web pages and remove elements such as user comment boxes on X (formerly Twitter). In October, the company finally released AI-based features like file and pinned tag renaming, page summary previews, and access to ChatGPT via the command bar. Later that month, the company released a feature that allows users to share folders and spaces with non-Arc users and split views.