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The Browser Company on Tuesday said it is considering selling or open sourcing its Arc Browser as it seeks to divert resources to developing a new, AI-powered browser called Dia.
When the company announced Dia in December 2024, it admitted that Arc was a complex browser for a lot of users, and it wanted to build a product that appealed to the masses. Since then, The Browser Company has been issuing bug fixes and security updates to Arc, but has stopped developing the app and adding features to it.
In a new blog post, the company’s CEO Josh Miller said Arc browser ran into a “novelty tax” problem.
“For most people, Arc was simply too different, with too many new things to learn, for too little reward […] On top of that, Arc lacked cohesion in both its core features and core values. It was experimental, that was part of its charm, but also its complexity,” Miller wrote.
The Browser Company doesn’t plan to shut down Arc completely, but it said it has considered selling it or open sourcing it. However, Miller said the challenge in open sourcing the browser is that it is built on top of the Arc Development Kit, an internal SDK, which is also the core component of its new browser Dia, and it wouldn’t want to give away that IP.
“While we’d love to open-source Arc someday, we can’t do that meaningfully without also open-sourcing ADK. And ADK is still core to our company’s value. That doesn’t mean it’ll never happen,” Miller said.
Notably, many Arc Browser users have been asking the company to turn it into an open source project.
The Browser Company’s Dia browser is still in alpha testing. The company hasn’t given a date for a wider release, but it said that it will make the browser available for testing to Arc members.
Ivan covers global consumer tech developments at TechCrunch. He is based out of India and has previously worked at publications including Huffington Post and The Next Web. You can reach out to him at im[at]ivanmehta[dot]com
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