How to Record Arc Browser Tabs

Arc Browser, built by The Browser Company, redefined what a browser sidebar looks like and built a small but loud audience among designers, product managers, and indie hackers on Mac. Spaces, vertical tabs, Boosts, and the AI features (Browse for Me, Air Traffic Control, 5-Second Previews) make Arc visually distinct — and that visual distinction shows up in recordings. A demo recorded in Arc looks different from one recorded in Chrome or Safari, and that's a feature when your audience is the kind of person who already uses Arc.

This guide covers six methods for recording Arc tabs and windows, with attention to Arc-specific features that record well (Spaces switching, Boost overlays, AI flows) and ones that don't (vertical tabs sometimes get cropped, Easels are partial demos but not real recordings). Arc is Mac-only as of 2026 (a Windows beta exists but is far behind), so most of this assumes macOS.

Quick Comparison

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Method 1: macOS Screenshot Toolbar Recording an Arc Window

The most native pairing on Mac. Arc is a Mac-first browser; macOS Screenshot toolbar is a Mac-first recorder. They get along by default.

Steps

1. Open Arc to your target Space and tab
2. Press Shift + Command + 5 to open the Screenshot toolbar
3. Click Record Selected Portion (fourth icon)
4. Click directly on the Arc window — the selection snaps to the Arc window bounds. Or drag a custom region if you want to crop the sidebar out.
5. Click Options — set save destination (default is Desktop), enable Microphone if narrating, set timer if needed
6. Click Record to start
7. Click the stop icon in the menu bar to end
8. The .mov file appears at your save location with timestamp filename

What records well

• Arc's vertical sidebar with Spaces, pinned tabs, and the Library — all rendered as part of the Arc window, so they're captured cleanly
• Space-switching animation (pinch gesture or Command + Option + arrow) — the smooth slide between Spaces records at the toolbar's default 60fps
• Boost-injected CSS — custom styling on sites you've boosted — captures as part of the page render
• Command Bar (Command + T) overlay with AI suggestions

What doesn't capture

• Tab audio (any video/audio playing in Arc) — macOS Screenshot toolbar has never captured system audio natively. Microphone-only.
• The Air Traffic Control redirect arrow that briefly appears when ATC fires — it's so quick it's easy to miss in playback. Slow-motion editing helps.
• Picture-in-Picture floating windows when they're outside the recorded region — set capture to Full Screen if you'll trigger PiP.

When this fits

Quick screencasts of Arc workflows where you don't need tab audio: design tool tutorials, productivity workflow demos, Spaces switching showcases. Most Arc-focused Twitter/X content fits this profile.

Method 2: Screenify Studio (Mac, Recording Arc with Tab Audio)

Screenify and Arc share a Mac-native, design-conscious DNA. For tutorials that need tab audio (AI feature demos with TTS, video site walkthroughs, audio-rich web apps) Screenify adds system audio capture without BlackHole or Loopback configuration.

Steps

1. Download Screenify Studio
2. On first launch, install the audio capture driver. Enter your Mac password — installs in 5 seconds.
3. Open Arc to the Space and tab you want to record
4. In Screenify's capture panel, choose Window mode and select Arc Browser
5. Toggle System Audio on. The waveform meter shows real-time tab audio levels.
6. Optionally toggle Microphone. The mixer shows two channels with a balance slider.
7. Optional: enable Smart Auto-Zoom to follow your cursor between sidebar and content area
8. Press Control + Command + R to start, press it again to stop
9. The recording opens in Screenify's editor for trimming, zoom keyframes, and MP4 export

Arc-specific advantages with Screenify

• Captures Arc's sidebar at full resolution. Window mode locks to Arc's actual window bounds including the vertical sidebar — no manual drag-to-select needed.
• Records Spaces transitions cleanly. The slide animation between Spaces happens at GPU-accelerated 60fps; Screenify captures at native frame rate.
• AI feature flows record with audio. When Browse for Me synthesizes a result with text-to-speech, system audio captures cleanly so viewers hear what the AI says.
• Smart Auto-Zoom suits sidebar-to-content workflows. A typical Arc tutorial cursor path is sidebar (click a tab) then content (interact with the page) then back to sidebar. Auto-zoom keyframes track that movement so viewers always see what you're clicking.

Use cases that suit this combo

• Arc Boost tutorials — recording your CSS edits in the Boost editor with the live page reflecting changes side by side
• Browse for Me demos where the AI renders a synthesized page response that needs audio context
• Productivity workflow showcases — switching between Personal, Work, and Project Spaces with a voice-over explaining what each Space contains
• AI feature walkthroughs (Air Traffic Control auto-redirects, 5-Second Previews, Tidy Tabs auto-organization)

Method 3: Arc Easels (Built-in Demo-Like Surface)

Arc Easels are not screen recordings — they're a free-form canvas inside Arc where you can paste website screenshots, sketch annotations, drop video embeds, and present the result. They're useful for "demo-like" content where a recording isn't the right medium: design critiques, ideation snapshots, async product feedback.

How to create an Easel

1. Open Arc, click the + icon in the sidebar
2. Choose New Easel
3. The canvas opens. Drag any website into it — Arc auto-snapshots the page as a tile.
4. Add stickers, text, sketches with the Apple Pencil-style brush, or shapes
5. Easels live in the sidebar and sync across devices via your Arc account

Where Easels fit (and where they don't)

Easels are excellent for:

• Design reviews where a teammate clicks through a static snapshot of a page and adds comments
• Async product spec collaboration — paste a UI screenshot, sketch the change, share the Easel link
• Mood boards from web sources

Easels are NOT:

• A screen recorder. They don't capture motion or audio.
• A presentation tool. They're free-form, not slide-based.
• A substitute for video. If you need to show a multi-step workflow with timing, record video.

That said, when an Easel is the right medium for the content (static, annotated, async), it's faster than recording a video and re-uploading. If the same idea would take 90 seconds of video to explain but 30 seconds of static annotation, Easel wins.

Method 4: Loom for Arc

Loom doesn't have a dedicated Arc extension, but Arc supports Chrome Web Store extensions natively (Arc is built on Chromium). Install the Loom Chrome extension and it works in Arc with the same flow as Chrome.

Setup

1. In Arc, visit the Chrome Web Store via chrome.google.com/webstore
2. Search for Loom and click Add to Chrome — Arc routes this to its own extension installer
3. Pin Loom to the Arc toolbar via the Extensions menu
4. Click the Loom icon to start recording

Recording flow in Arc

1. Click the Loom toolbar icon
2. Choose Tab + Cam, Screen + Cam, or Camera Only
3. Allow microphone, camera, and tab capture permissions
4. Recording starts after a 3-2-1 countdown
5. Stop via the floating control or Command + Shift + L
6. Loom uploads to its cloud and produces a shareable URL

Pricing

• Loom Free — 25 videos in library, up to 5 minutes per video, basic editing
• Loom Business — paid per user; unlimited videos and length, full editing, transcripts, custom branding, viewer insights

Why Arc users gravitate to Loom

Loom's async-video-message use case (record a 90-second walk-through, drop the link in Slack) fits Arc's productivity-power-user audience well. Both tools compete in the same "make work flow more cleanly" mental space.

Arc-specific friction with Loom

• Arc's vertical sidebar can clip from Loom's tab capture if the sidebar is wide. Solution: collapse the sidebar (Command + S) before recording, or use Screen + Cam instead of Tab + Cam.
• Arc's transparent window borders (when Spaces are themed) sometimes confuse Loom's window-edge detection. Switch to dark mode or solid Space colors before recording for cleaner edges.
• Arc auto-archives tabs that haven't been used recently — if your Loom recording references a tab that gets archived mid-session, it disappears. Pin important tabs before recording.

Method 5: OBS Studio for Multi-Source Arc Recording

For recordings that need more than just one Arc window — webcam overlay, multiple Arc windows in different Spaces, transitions between scenes — OBS handles the compositing.

Setup for Arc

1. Install OBS from obsproject.com
2. Open Arc to your starting Space
3. In OBS, click + under Sources, choose Window Capture
4. Select Arc Browser from the dropdown
5. For tab audio on macOS: install BlackHole (free virtual audio device), set Mac system output to a Multi-Output Device combining BlackHole + your speakers, then add Audio Input Capture in OBS pointing at BlackHole
6. Click Start Recording
7. Stop when done — file lands in the location set under Settings then Output then Recording Path

OBS scenes for Arc-specific workflows

A typical Arc tutorial benefits from multiple OBS scenes:

• Scene 1: Personal Space — Arc captured in Personal Space context, sidebar visible
• Scene 2: Work Space — Arc captured in Work Space, different theme color, sidebar slightly different
• Scene 3: Browse for Me result — Arc captured with AI synthesized page open, narrating overlay

Switching scenes mid-recording produces clean cuts that look like edited video.

Arc + OBS friction

• Window Capture occasionally drops frames when Arc triggers a Space switch (the GPU-accelerated slide animation is heavy). Display Capture (full screen) is more reliable for that specific transition.
• Arc's title bar styling (rounded corners, sidebar fade) renders correctly in Window Capture but may show black corners in some macOS versions. Workaround: use a Region capture cropped tighter than the window edges.
• BlackHole setup is non-trivial. If you're recording one Arc tutorial, the 15-minute setup is overhead. If you'll record many, the routing is permanent and pays off.

Method 6: iPhone Mirroring + macOS Recording for Cross-Device Flows

Arc has a companion iPhone app (Arc Search) that's a separate product but shares the design language. For tutorials demonstrating cross-device flow (start a search on iPhone, continue on Mac) you can mirror the iPhone via QuickTime or macOS 15 iPhone Mirroring and record both the Mac (with Arc) and the mirrored iPhone in one session.

Steps

1. Connect iPhone to Mac via USB-C (or use macOS 15 iPhone Mirroring wirelessly)
2. Open QuickTime Player, choose File then New Movie Recording, click the dropdown next to the record button, select your iPhone as camera/audio source
3. The iPhone screen appears in a QuickTime window on your Mac
4. Position the QuickTime iPhone window next to your Arc window
5. Use macOS Screenshot toolbar or Screenify in Full Screen mode to record both at once
6. Edit in post to add transition or splitscreen effects if needed

Where this fits

Demonstrating Arc Search → handoff to Arc on Mac, or showing how Arc's sync surfaces tabs across devices. Most Arc-focused content sticks to Mac-only, but the cross-device angle is differentiated content for the small subset of viewers who use both Arc apps.

Arc-Specific Features That Affect Recording

Spaces

Spaces are Arc's signature feature — separate browsing contexts (Personal, Work, Project A, Project B) with different themes, pinned tabs, and bookmarks. Each Space has its own color palette that Arc applies to the sidebar background and accent.

When recording:

• Switching Spaces produces a smooth horizontal slide. Records at 60fps with Screenify or macOS toolbar. OBS Window Capture sometimes drops frames during the transition.
• Each Space's color theme is part of the captured pixel data. A recording that switches from a blue Space to a red Space looks like a deliberate visual transition — useful as a narrative beat in a tutorial.
• Tip: name Spaces semantically before recording. "Work" then "Personal" then "Project Demo" reads better than "Space 1" then "Space 2" if the Space name appears anywhere.

Boost (Custom CSS Per Site)

Boost lets you inject custom CSS into any site, persistently. Boosts are visible in recordings as the modified version of the site (custom colors, hidden elements, custom fonts).

Recording Boost tutorials means showing the Boost editor (split view: site on left, CSS editor on right) with live changes reflecting. Screenify's window-aware capture handles this cleanly. Auto-zoom on cursor movement between editor and preview makes the cause-and-effect easy to follow for viewers.

Library and Sidebar

Arc's Library combines pinned tabs, bookmarks, downloads, and recent items in the sidebar. Recording Library navigation shows the visual hierarchy that Chrome's flat bookmark bar can't.

The sidebar is collapsible (Command + S toggles). For tutorials about page content rather than browser navigation, collapse the sidebar; for tutorials about Arc itself, leave it expanded.

AI Features (Browse for Me, Air Traffic Control, 5-Second Previews)

• Browse for Me — type a query in the Command Bar, Arc browses to multiple sources and synthesizes a result page. Recording this demo benefits from system audio (the synthesized page sometimes plays back text via TTS) and from auto-zoom following the result page rendering.
• Air Traffic Control (ATC) — set rules that auto-redirect URLs (e.g., twitter.com to x.com). Records as a quick redirect arrow indicator that's easy to miss; consider slowing playback to 0.5x in editing for clarity.
• 5-Second Previews — hover over a link, Arc loads the destination in a small preview tile. Records cleanly because it's just a tooltip-style overlay on the page.

For more on AI-feature recording flows, our screencast storytelling on Arc piece goes deeper on narrative structure.

Use Cases That Suit Arc Recording

Design tool tutorials in Arc Spaces

Arc's audience overlaps heavily with Figma, Linear, and Notion power users. A tutorial showing the same Figma project in a "Design" Space with custom theme, pinned to the sidebar, communicates Arc-fluency to viewers who'll recognize the setup. Record with Screenify in Window mode so the Space color and pinned tabs are visible.

Productivity workflow demos showing Spaces

"How I organize my browser by client" type content fits Arc well because Spaces makes the organization visible. A 60-second tour of three Spaces — Personal, Work, Side Project — with the camera moving between them shows the structure without needing voice-over. Arc audiences on TikTok and Twitter respond to this format.

Arc Boost customization tutorials

Boost is a long-tail content category — every site can be Boosted differently, and many users want examples. Recording a Boost tutorial means showing the Boost editor with split view (site preview + CSS), making changes, and watching the site update. macOS Screenshot toolbar handles this if you don't need audio; Screenify if you're narrating. The recording itself becomes a portfolio piece for the Boost author.

AI feature demos (Browse for Me workflow)

Arc's AI features are differentiated and under-documented. Recordings that show Browse for Me producing a result, ATC firing on a URL, or 5-Second Previews surfacing context are the most-shared Arc content because they showcase what makes Arc different. Use a recorder that captures system audio (Screenify, or OBS+BlackHole) so the AI synthesis audio comes through cleanly.

Arc Browser Community and Recording Aesthetics

Arc's community on Twitter/X and in design-focused TikTok skews aesthetic-conscious. Recordings shared in those communities tend to:

• Use clean Space themes (single accent color, no busy backgrounds)
• Show the sidebar (it's part of the brand identity)
• Be short (under 60 seconds for social, under 5 minutes for longer tutorials)
• Use minimal cursor movement (Arc users notice cursor flow; jagged motion looks unpolished)
• Avoid ambient noise — clean voice-over or music-only background

Tools that produce smooth cursor motion (Screenify's auto-zoom, Screen Studio's smooth tracking) suit the aesthetic. Tools that produce raw, untouched cursor paths (macOS toolbar) work for fast utility recordings but read as "less considered" in the community.

Troubleshooting

Arc's vertical tabs don't show in the recording

Three causes:

• Sidebar is collapsed. Press Command + S to expand, then re-record.
• Recording region is too narrow. Window mode should auto-include the sidebar; Region mode requires manual sizing. Re-drag the region to include the full Arc width.
• Browser zoom is high. Arc renders the sidebar at the same base scale as the rest of the chrome; if you've zoomed the page, the page widens but sidebar doesn't change. Reset zoom with Command + 0.

Boost CSS doesn't appear in the recording

Boost CSS is per-site. If the recording shows the un-boosted site, the Boost might be:

• Disabled for that Space. Check the Boost panel and verify it's active in the current Space.
• Scoped to a different URL. Boosts are URL-pattern-matched. Verify the pattern matches the page you're on.
• Cached as un-boosted. Hard reload (Command + Shift + R) to force CSS re-injection.

Spaces transition is choppy in OBS

OBS Window Capture struggles with Arc's GPU-accelerated Space transitions. Switch to Display Capture (full screen) — frame rate stabilizes because Display Capture reads the framebuffer directly rather than tracking window bounds.

Air Traffic Control redirect doesn't show in recording

ATC fires extremely quickly — the redirect arrow appears for under a second. To make it visible:

• Slow playback to 0.5x in post-edit (Screenify, Final Cut, DaVinci all support this)
• Add a freeze-frame at the redirect moment with a callout overlay
• Trigger ATC deliberately on a URL where the redirect is meaningful, then narrate during the brief pause

iPhone Mirroring window is grainy

macOS 15 iPhone Mirroring streams at iPhone's native resolution, which is much smaller than Mac display. When scaled up in a recording, it looks soft. Solution: record at iPhone Mirroring's native size (don't enlarge the window), or use QuickTime iPhone capture which streams at higher quality.

Recording is small file but Arc looks heavy

Arc renders at high resolution because of Retina + transparent layers. Recordings can be misleadingly small if compression aggressively degrades the sidebar gradients. Use higher-bitrate export (Screenify's "High Quality" preset, OBS at 8000+ kbps) for content where the Arc aesthetic matters.

FAQ

Does Arc have built-in screen recording?

No. Arc has Easels (a free-form static canvas) but no native video recorder. Screen recording uses macOS tools, third-party native apps, or Chrome-compatible browser extensions installed in Arc.

Can I record Arc on Windows?

Arc has a Windows beta as of 2026, but it lacks many features (no Easels, partial Spaces, no Air Traffic Control). For Windows, our Windows browser tab recording guide covers the recorder options. Recording Arc Windows beta works the same as recording any other Chromium browser on Windows.

Are Arc recordings stored privately?

Recordings via macOS toolbar, Screenify, OBS are stored locally on your Mac. Cloud uploads via Loom or Vidyard are stored on those services' servers. Arc itself does not store recordings — Arc's cloud sync is for tabs, Spaces, and Easels, not video.

Can I record Arc Search (the iPhone app)?

Yes, with iOS Screen Recording (Settings then Control Center then add Screen Recording, then activate from Control Center). Arc Search recordings are separate from Arc desktop recordings; cross-device demos require recording each separately and editing together.

Why does Arc's sidebar sometimes look transparent in recordings?

Arc applies a translucent material effect to the sidebar that adapts to the desktop wallpaper behind it. In window-bounded recordings, the sidebar transparency is preserved if the recorder captures alpha; in bitmap-only recordings, the sidebar shows whatever was visually composited at capture time. Most recorders fall into the second category and render correctly.

How big are Arc recordings?

A 5-minute Arc tutorial at 1080p with Screenify's default settings produces roughly 80-120 MB. At 4K, the same recording is 250-400 MB. macOS Screenshot toolbar produces similar file sizes. OBS varies based on bitrate; default OBS settings produce comparable sizes to Screenify.

Can I record AI features (Browse for Me, ATC) without showing my queries?

Yes. Use Arc's Private Window mode for the recording, or clear the Command Bar history before starting. Browse for Me queries are visible in the Command Bar and in the result page header; ATC rules are stored in Settings and don't appear unless you open Settings during recording.

Does Arc record more cleanly than Chrome on Mac?

Arc and Chrome both use Chromium under the hood, so rendering performance is similar. Arc's chrome (sidebar, Spaces, Boost) records as part of the window pixel data — Chrome has a thinner chrome with tabs at top. Aesthetically, Arc tutorials look more "designed" because the sidebar is a stronger visual anchor; functionally, both record at the same frame rate and quality.

Can I record multiple Arc windows in different Spaces simultaneously?

Yes, with OBS Display Capture (records the entire screen), with Screenify's Full Screen mode, or with macOS Screenshot toolbar in full-screen recording mode. Window-bound recording captures only one Arc window at a time. For side-by-side multi-window tutorials, full-screen capture is the path.

What's the best recorder for Arc tutorials I'll publish on Twitter/X?

Twitter/X favors short (under 60 seconds), high-contrast, vertical or square aspect-ratio video. Screenify's editor exports to vertical (9:16) or square (1:1) aspect ratio with cropping that keeps the Arc sidebar visible. Loom defaults to 16:9 and requires manual crop. macOS toolbar produces 16:9 by default. For polished social content, an editor that handles aspect-ratio repurposing matters more than which app captured the original.