Arcify Your Brave Browser

After reading that The Browser Company is now focusing on something they can actually monetize, I started looking for alternatives again. Mainly to switch things up a little, but also to avoid becoming overly reliant on a proprietary browser (not that I have much against proprietary software). I checked out Zen (which is awesome), but I still prefer a Chromium base, so I installed Brave again—my next favorite project in this space.

Prerequisite: Install the Nightly Release (Beta will also work, I assume)

To ensure access to all experimental features, make sure you have the nightly release installed.

Enabling Vertical Tabs

Brave now supports vertical tabs. This can be enabled by opening the context menu on the tab bar and selecting the vertical tab option. Great for organization!

Enabling Split Tabs and Tab Groups

Step 1: Access Brave Flags

  1. Go to brave://flags in your browser.

Step 2: Enable Split View

  1. Search for and enable the flag “Enable split view”.
    • This feature allows for split tabs! While not as refined as in Arc, it’s a promising start.

Step 3: Enable Tab Grouping Features

  1. Search for “tab group”.
  2. Enable all related experiments (if you want). These include:
    • Tab Groups Save and Sync V2
    • Tab Group Sync Service Desktop Migration
    • Tab Groups Save UI Update
    • Tab Organization
    • Multi Tab Organization
    • Tab Reorganization
    • Tab Reorganization Divider

By enabling these features, you’ll gain access to a sidebar that somewhat resembles the experience offered by Arc.

Additional Tip: Shortcut for Searching Persistent Tabs

One of the cool features enabled through these configurations is the shortcut to search your (now persistent) tabs using Meta + Shift + a. This is something that the Arc team should’ve leveraged, as it’s incredibly useful when not cramped into the global command palette.

I still use Arc on my private Mac and am very thankful to the team for pushing browser UX forward again in a meaningful way.

Written by Paul Derscheid on 12 Nov 2024

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