Arc to Dia

the dates, because they are the whole story

This is not a migration you are choosing. It is a schedule you are complying with.

• 22 October 2026 — new Arc accounts stopped. Already happened.
• 23 November 2026 — Arc Search on iOS and Android loses AI features including Browse for Me. Sign-in and tab syncing stop. The app keeps working as a basic local browser.
• 22 December 2026 — Arc stops working entirely on Mac and Windows. Accounts are deactivated. Arc Search is pulled from the Play Store.
• Within 30 days after — personal data is deleted.

Mobile breaks a month before desktop, which catches people out. If you rely on Arc Search on a phone, your deadline is November, not December.

check your hardware before anything else

Dia requires macOS 14 or later on Apple silicon.

If you are on Windows or an Intel Mac, Dia is not available to you. Arc still stops working on 22 December. The Browser Company's migration story does not include you, and nothing in the announcement acknowledges that.

Your options are a conventional browser: Brave if you want privacy defaults closest to what you had, Firefox if you want off Chromium entirely, Chrome if you want the thing that just works. None of them reproduce Spaces. That is the honest answer and it is worth knowing in week one rather than on 21 December.

the import is genuinely easy

Passwords, bookmarks, extensions and history transfer directly through Dia's import. It takes minutes and it works.

Run it while Arc is still installed and functioning, because the import reads from a live Arc install rather than from an export file. Leaving this until Arc has stopped working turns an easy job into a manual one.

what changes name, and what changes shape

Three things get renamed, and knowing the new words saves most of the frustration people report:

• Spaces become Profiles. For separating work and personal browsing. The import does not map one onto the other, so you rebuild these by hand. Most people have fewer Spaces than they imagine.
• Folders become Pinned Tab Groups. Same idea, different label.
• Vertical tabs are an option, not the default. They still exist as a sidebar layout. If the sidebar was the reason you liked Arc, turn this on before deciding Dia is not for you.

The genuine loss is the spatial model itself. Arc treated Spaces as rooms you moved between. Dia's Profiles are closer to conventional browser profiles. If that model was why you loved Arc, no setting restores it, and that is worth grieving briefly before you get on with it.

decide about the AI separately

Dia is marketed as an AI-first browser, and that framing makes people assume migrating means adopting an AI workflow. It does not.

Arc's core features are free in Dia and the AI is optional. Move your data, get your tabs back, use it as a browser. If you later want the AI limits lifted, Dia Pro is $20/month, with a $100/month tier added in August 2026.

Doing both at once — new browser and new workflow — is how a one-hour migration turns into a week of friction.

the context nobody puts in the announcement

Arc had been in maintenance mode since May 2025, when The Browser Company stopped active development to focus on Dia. Atlassian acquired the company for $610 million later that year. So the shutdown is the end of a process that started eighteen months ago rather than a sudden decision.

The stated reason is security cost: keeping a browser secure "takes constant, dedicated work that is only increasing in the age of AI", and Dia was built to current standards. That is a credible reason and also a convenient one.

Worth drawing the lesson rather than the outrage: Arc was free, beloved, well-funded and acquired by a profitable company, and it still got switched off. If a tool holds something you cannot lose, the question is not whether the company is good — it is whether you can get your data out. Full comparison at Arc vs Dia.