AI Dia web browser takes inspiration from its predecessor, Arcan earlier experiment in modernizing the web browsing experience that came from the startup known as The Browser Company. On Sunday, the founder of The Browser Company, Josh Miller confirmed that the new AI browser will bring Arc’s “greatest hits” to Dia, including things like sidebar mode, and combine it with native AI features like memory and agents.
That explanation suggests that Dia, which has since been acquired by Atlassian for $610 million, could have an edge in the AI browser race as it builds on the company’s prior knowledge from developing Arc.
The latter was originally launched in mid-2023 as a browser reinvention designed around the way people use the internet today. This included offering separate workspaces for work and personal browsing, support for pinned tabs, a command bar that worked like Apple’s Spotlight search, and a sidebar that included the search bar, tab list, user bookmarks, audio controls, and more.
However, Arc may have tried to push the envelope a bit too much: Miller later admitted that Arc was ultimately too complicated for most people to adopt.
“The Arc was simply too different, with too many new things to learn, for too little payoff…Furthermore, the Arc lacked coherence in both its core features and core values. It was experimental—that was part of its charm—but so was its complexity,” Miller wrote in a blog post earlier this year, detailing the company’s decision to shut down Arc and open source, and refocusing the company’s efforts on building Dia.
But the Arc might not necessarily be a failure, even if it didn’t become a widespread consumer product. Instead, the browser gave the company a year’s worth of information about what kinds of modern browser features resonated with users and which ones didn’t.
This could help the company move forward when building out the feature set for Dia.
As Miller says in a post on X“Dia’s architecture is much better for AI, speed, and security,” but it will introduce features that Arc fans loved, like sidebar mode — which was just spotted in the company’s latest “early birds” version of Dia’s AI browser.
Already, Dia has added other features from Arc’s ‘Greatest Hits’,Like automatically converting Google Meet to a picture-in-picture player when you switch tabs and custom keyboard shortcuts. Miller he hinted that the company is exploring how to transition Arc’s Spaces—the separate browsing areas with their own set of pinned tabs, favorites, topics, history, and cookies—to Dia. And he said Dia’s team is current test pinned tabs.
Miller asked for additional feedback on other features he should add, such as sliding profile and Arc Search-inspired updates to the Dia mobile app coming in 2026.
Additionally, Miller notes, Dia will have less bloat and native AI for things like memory and agents.
Following the acquisition by Atlassian, The Browser Company continues to operate independently. As a result, Miller said the company will be able to add more “browser essentials,” referring to Arc’s favorite features, to the Dia browser. He also shared that Dia is developing deeper integrations with Atlassian’s Jira and other applications, such as Linear, under its new owner.
