I tried Arc’s smarter sibling so you don’t have to, but might want to

No other browser developer is making as much of a buzz in the tech community as The Browser Company, the makers of Arc. While Arc was one of the most offbeat web browsers I’ve used (and stuck to!) in a long time, it didn’t garner the widespread appeal the company had hoped for. That’s why it has now switched gears to Dia — a web browser built from the ground up around generative AI. It integrates deep into your workflow, intelligently talks to your open tabs, and has contextual awareness like no other.

Dia is currently in beta for Mac. I went hands-on with the browser to find out what exactly is new — and whether it’s tempting enough for one to switch away from Google Chrome.

At first glance, you’ll notice that Dia differs from Arc in one key way. Instead of trying to look different and disrupt users’ muscle memory around browser tabs (which is perhaps what the company thinks held Arc back), Dia looks much more like a regular browser. It’s easier on the senses and doesn’t overwhelm you with a radically different interface.

With Dia, everything is where you expect it to be. The search bar is at the top, as are your tabs and settings. And while Arc integrated its AI features subtly — and at times, superficially — Dia takes a more upfront approach. The search bar is entirely AI-powered, and a chatbot sits on the side with uncannily detailed contextual awareness of what you’re browsing — and not just on the current tab.

Beyond the super mundane

Most AI features in browsers show up as sidebars with chatbots or as writing assistants to help you make the AI writing more human. Dia has those too — but that’s the least interesting part of it.

What really stands out is Dia’s understanding of on-screen content, which goes beyond just text and images. It was able to summarize a 40-minute-long video interview of Sam Altman using a single prompt — something Gemini refuses to do if you paste a video link on its site. What impressed me most was how fast it worked: the summary came in under five seconds! Sure, it’s using closed captions rather than truly “watching” the video — but it’s still pretty handy.

Dia’s smarts get even better with multi-tab queries. You can select multiple tabs, and Dia will use them to answer your questions. I found this useful when comparing hotel options for an upcoming trip or deciding which mouse to buy for my laptop. The results, however, were hit or miss. Sometimes it pulled in unnecessary information from the web, and I had to clarify that I wanted answers based only on the selected tabs. A minor and easily fixable hiccup that’s passable for a beta.

But the highlight feature is something called Skills, tucked quietly into a corner of the browser. It was hard to find at first, but I’m glad I did.

Skills is a simple automation system that uses natural language — no coding or complex linking required. You just give the shortcut a name, describe what you want it to do when evoked, and Dia takes care of the rest. The first Skill I created pulled news summaries from my preferred sites and gave me a daily update. What usually takes me half an hour each morning was done in 30 seconds flat. You can get more complex, too, by automating daily email digests, auto-filling forms, summarizing your Twitter feed to create an annoying tweet thread of your own, building itineraries from open tabs, and more.

I just wish Dia made Skills a bit more proactive, like triggering the daily digest action automatically when I open Gmail during a set time every day instead of requiring me to run the skill each time manually.

AI in Dia is often helpful and even impressive. But at times, it overcomplicates simple tasks or feels intrusive. For instance, surely someone at The Browser Company must’ve realized that asking a chatbot to translate a webpage is slower and clunkier than just clicking a button that instantly switches the language on-page.

And while it’s nice to have AI help with everything under the sun, it’s hard to ignore the privacy implications. Such deep AI integration requires sending your queries and relevant data to the cloud. Dia’s makers say they anonymize the data and delete it from their own and partners’ servers within a fixed timeframe. But considering Arc was almost suffered in a data breach, verbal reassurances alone may not be enough to earn user trust.

The AI novelty in browsers is a long game

And no, Dia isn’t the first to play it.

Dia has a lot going for it — smart features, handy automations, and clever multi-tab integrations that could tempt users to switch. But guess who’s getting the same features? Google Chrome.

The same Chrome that millions already use. With Gemini integration, Google is bringing a near-identical set of AI tools to its browser, but in a better form. The tiny, floating Gemini window looks cleaner than Dia’s full-length side panel. And with upcoming support for multi-tab context and Gemini Live for real-time chat with the AI, Chrome might soon feel like a more versatile and intuitive assistant that’s omnipresent.

Once Chrome has the same feature set, it’ll be hard to convince people heavily invested in the Google browser to switch. Dia will need a stronger story to tell; otherwise, Chrome will maintain its dominance, especially with how aggressively Google is innovating with AI lately.

If you’re platform-agnostic, it ultimately comes down to one question: who do you trust with your personal data? Google or The Browser Company?