Is Apple planning to “Sherlock” Arc?

One of the most innovative features of the mobile web browser, Arc Search from The Browser Company, is its ability to search the web for you and then return a summary of what it learned, instead of return a more traditional set of search results. The “Browse for Me” feature is one of many ways the company has leveraged AI to offer a new way to search the web. Another, “pinch to summarize,” offers an AI summary of individual web pages. However, it appears that these AI features could also be the target of Apple’s latest attempt at “sherlocking” – a term that refers to the way Apple has historically borrowed ideas from its developer community to flesh out its own applications and operating system features.

The term emerged following Apple’s release of a search application named Sherlock in the late 1990s, which offered similar functionality to a third-party search application, Watson. Since then, every time Apple offers a new feature or application that seems “inspired” by another, it is called “sherlocking”.

In recent years, Apple has been accused of misappropriating products like Camo, which let you use your iPhone as a webcam; this became a built-in feature known as the Continuity Camera. It locked down apps like Duet Display and Luna with the release of Sidecar, a way to use the iPad as a second screen. Apple’s Buy Now, Pay Later service, Apple Pay Later, has reportedly blocked other BNPL apps like Klarna and others. Medication tracking, period tracking, mood logging, journaling, and sleep tracking features were also first discovered among the third-party developer community, to name a few .

With the release of iOS 18 later this year, Apple could once again borrow ideas from its community of app developers. This time, it’s Arc who could be one of those affected.

According to a recent report from Bloomberg, Apple plans to launch a new technology called “smart summaries,” among other AI-based additions to core apps like Photos, Notes, and Safari. As Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman describes it, Smart Summaries will provide users with (emphasis added): “summaries of their missed notifications and individual text messages, as well as web pages, press articlesdocuments, notes and other media.

Summarizing the web using AI is one of the things Arc is best known for today – and an area where the company continues to innovate. For example, Arc launched another new way to search the web with AI last week, called “Call Arc,” where you raise the phone to your ear and ask a question verbally. In combination with its “browse for me” and “pinch to summarize” search tools, Arc offers users a way to use AI as a search companion.

Summarizing the news with AI, more broadly, has also been the focus of several startups, including apps like ex-Twitter engineers Particle, smart RSS reader Bulletin, trend digest Break the Web, and countless other iOS apps.

If Apple bundles primarily AI-based summaries into its Safari browser, demand for alternative browsers or apps that offer their own AI tools could be diminished. This won’t necessarily be enough to affect Arc’s growth, however. The startup behind the web browser has pledged to experiment with ideas other than AI summaries, including new ways to minimize distractions, organize tabs, block ads, and more, as well as with an AI assistant, Max.