Arc AI Update: What's New in May 2026

Hey everyone — Mamata here. It’s been a while since my last proper update post, and honestly, a lot has changed. I’ve been shipping features, fixing things, and quietly making Arc something I’m really proud of.

If you haven’t updated Arc recently, this is the post that’ll catch you up. And if you’re new here — welcome! This will give you a good picture of what Arc can do right now.

Let me walk through what’s new, what’s improved, and why each thing matters.

Smart Extract: Pull Data From Any Screen

This is probably the feature I’m most excited about. Smart Extract reads whatever’s on your screen and pulls out structured, actionable data — not just raw text, but organized information you can act on instantly.

What does that mean in practice? Open Arc on any screen and tap Smart Extract, and you’ll see:

Phone numbers — tap to call
Links and URLs — tap to open
Email addresses — tap to compose
Dates and times — tap to add to calendar
Addresses — tap to open in Maps
OTPs and verification codes — tap to copy

Before this, if you wanted to grab a phone number from a WhatsApp message or an OTP from an SMS notification, you were either memorizing it for 10 seconds or doing the long-press-copy dance. Smart Extract identifies what type of data each piece is and gives you one-tap actions for each one.

We wrote a full deep dive on Smart Extract if you want to see exactly how it works and all the data types it handles. Spoiler: it handles more than you’d think.

Why it matters: Text extraction on Android has been stuck in the copy-paste era. This moves it to the “tap and go” era. The difference is not small.

Info Vault: Your Personal Memory Layer

This one came from user feedback more than anything. People kept telling me they were using Arc’s summary feature to… just remember things. A bank account number. A Wi-Fi password. The measurement of a room. A colleague’s address. Stuff that’s on your screen right now but you’ll forget in 10 minutes.

Info Vault is my answer. See something on screen you want to save? Tap the sidebar, save to Vault. Arc extracts the relevant info and stores it securely. Come back anytime and recall it instantly.

You can organize items with labels, search through them, and — here’s the part I like — ask Arc’s AI Chat about your stored info. “What was that restaurant my friend recommended?” and it’ll search your Vault.

We built a full guide for Info Vault that walks through all the ways to save and recall info.

Why it matters: Your phone shows you important information all day. You shouldn’t have to screenshot it, write it in a notes app, or just hope you’ll remember. Info Vault makes your screen content actually persist.

AI Writer: Draft, Reply, and Create In-Context

AI Writer has been in Arc for a while, but I’ve made significant improvements in this release. The big change: it’s now much better at understanding the context of what’s on your screen.

The three modes are:

Reply mode — reads the message you’re looking at and drafts a contextual response. Great for WhatsApp, Telegram, email, any messaging app.
Create mode — write something new based on what’s on screen. A social media post about the article you’re reading, a follow-up email about the thread you just summarized.
Rewrite mode — takes text on your screen and rewrites it. Fix grammar, change tone, make it shorter, make it more professional.

The key improvement is context awareness. When you’re in Reply mode and looking at a casual WhatsApp message, Arc doesn’t draft a formal email response. It matches the tone, language, and style of the conversation. Same for Create mode — it uses what’s on screen as source material, not just as a blank prompt.

Check out the AI Writer guide for examples and tips.

Why it matters: Most AI writing tools are blank-canvas — you type a prompt, they generate text. But most of the time you’re not starting from scratch. You’re responding to something, building on something, or editing something that already exists. AI Writer works with the context you already have.

AI Read Aloud: Listen to Any Screen

Sometimes you don’t need a summary or extraction. You just want to hear the content. Maybe you’re driving. Maybe your eyes are tired. Maybe you learn better by listening.

AI Read Aloud uses natural-sounding text-to-speech to read any content on your screen. News articles, emails, messages, study material — anything. One tap and Arc starts reading.

The voice quality is a big upgrade from Android’s built-in TTS. And because Arc reads the screen directly (not just selected text), you don’t have to highlight anything. Just tap and listen.

Why it matters: Screen readers serve an essential accessibility purpose, but there’s a middle ground — people who can see fine but want to listen instead. This is for them. And for anyone whose eyes need a break.

Flashcards: Turn Any Screen Into Study Material

This feature started as a side project and quickly became one of our most-loved features. Point Arc at any educational content — a textbook page, a lecture slide, a study guide, a Wikipedia article — and it generates flashcards with questions and answers.

The flashcards use active recall and spaced repetition principles. Not just “what year was X” but conceptual questions that actually test understanding. You can review them in Arc, and they’re organized by the source content so you always know where they came from.

We’ve heard from medical students, language learners, and exam preppers who are using this daily. The flashcards feature guide has more details.

Why it matters: Passive reading has terrible retention. Active recall is one of the most effective study techniques. Flashcards bridge that gap — turning any content you’re already looking at into effective study material with zero effort.

Call Insights: Never Miss What Was Said

Call Insights transcribes and summarizes your phone calls in real time. Not just a recording — an actual AI summary with key points, action items, and decisions made.

The transcription happens on-device, and you get a clean summary after each call. You can review the full transcript, search through past calls, and share summaries.

We recently did a full write-up on Call Insights that covers privacy, accuracy, and how it handles different accents and languages.

Why it matters: Phone calls are a black hole for information. You hang up and immediately forget half of what was discussed. Call Insights fixes that without requiring you to take notes during the call.

The floating sidebar got a significant redesign. Here’s what changed:

Better auto-hide — the sidebar now intelligently hides based on what you’re doing. Full-screen video? It’s gone. Typing in a text field? It steps aside. Scrolling through a feed? Minimal presence.
Resizable — drag to make it bigger or smaller depending on how much screen space you need.
Edge positioning — left side or right side, your choice. And it works fine on phones with curved edges.
Quick actions — your most-used features are one swipe away. Summary, Smart Extract, and AI Writer are right there. Everything else is one tap further.

The sidebar is the backbone of Arc’s experience. It’s how you access everything without leaving your current app. This update makes it feel less like an overlay and more like a natural part of your phone’s interface.

Why it matters: The whole point of Arc is that it works inside your current app. If the sidebar is annoying, nothing else matters. This update makes it genuinely unobtrusive while still being instantly accessible.

Custom Actions: Create Your Own One-Tap AI Workflows

This is the power user feature. Custom Actions let you create your own one-tap AI actions that run on any screen.

Some examples people have built:

“Extract all prices from this shopping page and list them”
“Translate this WhatsApp message to English”
“Check if this email contains any action items assigned to me”
“Generate a flashcard from this definition”
“Summarize this article in 3 bullet points”

You define the prompt once, give it a name, and it appears in your sidebar. One tap, and it runs against whatever’s on your screen.

We’ve also got a community library of shared actions that you can import. Check out the Custom Actions community post for popular templates.

Why it matters: AI is most useful when it does exactly what you need, not what someone else decided you need. Custom Actions let you define that yourself, without writing any code.

AI Chat: Ask Questions About Your Screen

Sometimes you don’t want a summary or extraction. You have a specific question. “What time does this event start?” “How much is the total on this receipt?” “Did my boss ask me to do anything in this message?”

AI Chat lets you ask any question about what’s currently on your screen. Arc reads the content, understands the context, and gives you a direct answer. Not a summary — a specific response to your specific question.

Why it matters: Summaries are great for “tell me what this is about.” But sometimes you need “tell me this one specific thing.” AI Chat handles the latter without making you read a whole summary.

What’s Next

A few things we’re working on for the next release:

Multi-language improvements — better support for mixed-language screens (Hindi+English, Japanese+English, etc.)
Smarter Smart Extract — more data types, better accuracy on complex layouts
Deeper Info Vault integration — connect saved info across sessions and contexts
Performance improvements — faster everything, lower battery usage

If you have feature requests or feedback, the best place is our community. We read everything.

Get Arc

If you’re already using Arc — update to the latest version for all of the above. If you’re new here:

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s new in Arc’s May 2026 update?

May 2026 brought Smart Extract v2 with improved accuracy, Call Insights beta, Community Actions marketplace expansion, and new language support for AI Writer.

How do I get the latest Arc update?

Arc updates automatically via the Play Store. You can also check for updates manually from the Arc Play Store listing.

Are these features free?

Some features like Smart Extract and screen summarization are free. Premium features like Call Insights and unlimited AI Writer require an Arc Premium subscription.

Download Arc free from Google Play

It’s free, it works on any Android device, and the floating sidebar takes 30 seconds to set up. The next time you’re staring at a wall of text and just want the key points, you’ll be glad it’s there.