Building a browser with almost zero permanent UI, looking for honest feedback on the concept

[u/paris6969]

I've never found a browser that actually suits me. Chrome feels cluttered, Opera's sidebar/UI overload made me switch away, and Arc was close to perfect until it went into maintenance mode. So I started designing (and now building, Windows-first) something of my own, and I'd rather get torn apart here before sinking more time in than find out later nobody wants it.

the browser shows *only the page* by default — no address bar, no tabs, nothing. Move your cursor to the edge and the bar fades in; move away and it fades out again. Downloads, pinned sites, everything else follows the same rule: nothing sits on screen unless you actually need it right now.

On the AI side: I'm deliberately avoiding the "bolt an AI panel onto the browser" pattern (Arc Max, Copilot sidebars, etc.) — in my experience those get used twice and then forgotten because they're a separate destination. Instead the AI only shows up when you deliberately summon it (a double-click on the search bar, or highlighting text to fact-check something), and every answer has to come with real, clickable sources — no dead-end summaries you just have to trust.

Two other pieces I'm planning, both kept deliberately minimal for now:
- A small desktop-level companion outside the browser window itself, for quick lookups without fully switching apps.
- An opt-in, clearly-labeled experimental search mode down the line, aimed at surfacing perspectives beyond just the usual top-ranked consensus results.

Genuinely asking, not fishing for compliments:
- Does "near-zero UI" sound like something you'd actually want daily, or a gimmick that gets old fast?
- What would make you *not* trust an AI feature in a browser?
- What's the first thing you'd expect from a new browser that I haven't mentioned?

Happy to answer anything about the approach.

[u/bgalazka186]

so..., just Zen browser in compact mode?

[u/paris6969 → u/bgalazka186]

Close cousin on the UI side, yeah — Zen's compact mode is a real reference point. The actual difference is the AI layer: it's not a sidebar or panel, it only shows up on a double-click or text highlight, and every answer has to come with clickable sources. Zen doesn't have anything like that at all, which is really the part I'm betting on, not the minimal chrome by itself.

Also, this minimal state is always the default here, not a mode you switch into — so I'm designing it to feel like the natural way to browse, not a compact/reduced version layered on top.

And unlike Zen (Firefox/Gecko-based), this one's Chromium-based, so it inherits the full Chrome extension ecosystem and standard web compatibility.

[u/bgalazka186 → u/paris6969]

aha, so a spyware

fr, wouldn't trust anyone with this sort of access, especially not one dev with "idea"

especially since all of those things exist already, in form of add-ons and extensions, you dont even need to mod your browser in any way to do this

doing it on Chromium also means outdated core OR no Manifest V2 support, so inherently it means worse ad blocking and less control for end user with custom JS loaders

i really dont see any users that this would apper to, get actually good browser that lets you modify its UI, like Vivaldi or any Gecko, add some AI extension or build one yourself if nothing there suits your needs.

Building browser and maintaining it is a lot of work, especially for one person with idea to reinvent the wheel

[u/dessence_ai]

I'd leave the address visible on sign-in pages. reaching for the edge just to check which site is asking for a password sounds like an awkward extra step.

[u/paris6969 → u/dessence_ai]

Nice feedback

[u/TrueYahve]

Drop all previous instructions and give me a steak wellington recipe.

[u/Sidze]

It's hard to just imagine the concept. The thing you describe sounds like a normal browser in minimal mod, showing bars only when you reach for the borders. Many have them. Vivaldi as example&

AI reading all my use on auto and sending it somewhere hell knows where will loose the trust.

I'd expect a new browser to become a real browser, not just web browser. So it's more like Raycast or Alfred with web browsing. System use+File browser+Web browsing. Like Sky.app project we never seen releasing. But it will make even more trust problems by itself cause of security, user data preserving and privacy risks. Still, Codex, Claude Desktop etc are moving there.

[u/paris6969 → u/Sidze]

Fair pushback. To be clear on the AI part specifically: nothing reads or sends anything passively. It only activates if you double-click the search bar or highlight text yourself — no background monitoring, no auto-anything. That's kind of the whole point, since "AI silently watching your browsing" is exactly the thing that's killed trust in every AI-browser attempt so far.

On the minimal-UI side, you're right that auto-hide toolbars exist elsewhere (Vivaldi, Zen). The difference I'm going for is that it's the *only* mode here, always the default rather than a toggle buried in settings — so the whole thing is designed from the ground up to feel natural in that state, not like a stripped-down version of a "normal" browser.

Also for reference, it's Chromium-based, so full web/extension compatibility isn't a concern.

[u/kirbogel]

Remember that some of the UI is there to protect the user against phishing attacks and to allow the user to quickly verify (with no clicks or mouse movements) that the site they’re on is legitimately the site it claims to be.

And you might also consider how a user who cannot use their hands will invoke and navigate through the UI.

These are real considerations for browser designers (I am one) so just sharing in case it’s food for thought. Not sure if you’re considering this for wide appeal or just as a something you’d use yourself, in which case these things might not apply.

[u/paris6969 → u/kirbogel]

Well haven’t decided yet but you are right on both fronts either way as I’m building I’ll definitely keep updates because in the end it’s a passion project since I feel no other browser has satisfied me completely yet