Crest, a New Open-Source Browser Inspired by Arc, Arrives in Early Access for Mac, iPhone and iPad

Crest is a new open-source browser for Mac, iPhone and iPad. Hacker News pointed to it as an independent browser inspired by Arc. The project says it is not affiliated with Arc.

The project is in early access, and its page says the security has not been independently audited. It is released under the MPL 2.0 license, an open-source license.

The main idea is Spaces. Most browsers keep every login, tab and distraction in one container. In Crest, you can create separate Spaces for work, home, research or a private session. Each one gets its own cookies, website data, history, archive, tabs, credentials, settings and sync identity. According to the project, switching Spaces changes the whole browsing context, not just the color of the window.

On Mac, Crest 0.7 uses two engines. Pages open in Chromium by default. That engine is built on ungoogled-chromium, which is Chromium with Google integrations removed, and it can run Chrome Web Store extensions. Any site or page can be opened in WebKit instead, which adds Reader, whole-page translation, built-in content blocking and FairPlay video, the protection system used for some streaming video.

When a page needs protected video, Crest switches to WebKit on its own. It respects any unsaved-changes prompt before moving the page. You can choose the default engine and set per-website rules in Settings, under Engines. iPhone and iPad use WebKit only.

The sidebar is where much of the browsing happens. It holds pins for everyday sites, saved tabs with a home URL, nested folders for projects, and current tabs. You can select tabs, Split Views and folders together and organize them in one step.

Split View keeps two to four live pages in a group. On Mac and iPad you can resize the columns. On iPhone you move through focused cards instead.

Peek lets you preview a link above the current page. You can close it or keep it as a tab. On Mac you can drag a link into a live Peek, and on iPhone and iPad native link and image menus handle touch actions.

Crest also has a Quick Window on Mac. It opens a link from another app using the signed-in session of the right Space, and you can promote it to a regular tab. Link Routing sends matching external links to a chosen Space. Mac users can also open shared windows onto the same Spaces and tabs, or use a disposable Blank Window for temporary tabs.

Crest Studio lets you design a crest for each Space and shows it on that Space's sidebar background. You pick from templates, then adjust shape, field, band, emblem, border, finish and sidebar. Artwork can be heraldic, emoji, monograms or SF Symbols. Appearance settings let you dock the sidebar on either edge, go borderless, change tab shape and scale, and set page zoom from 50% to 300%.

There are page tools too. On-device translation works on iPhone, iPad and WebKit pages, and on Chromium pages it translates selected text. Apple may ask you to download extra languages. Developer tools on Mac include viewport previews for phone, desktop and custom sizes, page capture, and access to Chromium DevTools or Web Inspector. Extension compatibility varies, according to the project.

Other features include media controls in the sidebar and Picture in Picture on Mac. Downloads show progress, and Chromium transfers can be paused and resumed when the server supports it. On iPhone and iPad, uploads go through Photos, the camera or Files.