Aside teases Windows launch in August, ahead of Dia’s fall debut

Earlier today, we reported that Dia is finally bringing its browser to Windows this fall. Well, not much later, it looks like the folks at Aside also wanted to show off their pace to the world. Dora Lee, co-founder and CTO of Aside, posted a teaser on X saying “Something big is coming to Windows this August,” followed by “Stay tuned.” So if that pans out, the much smaller Aside will land on Windows a good month or two before Dia does.

Aside is far from being a “popular” web browser, but anyone following the AI browser space knows the team ships fast. Chanhee, one of Aside’s co-founders, even took a swipe at The Browser Company on X, joking that “some rando browser company in new york has been building windows browser for years but still hasn’t shipped it.”

I’ve been testing Aside on my Mac for a while now, so I get the confidence. When I first tried it, I wrote that it’s basically what Comet and Dia should have been. The main issue I had was around performance. That flipped after a performance update, and the recent round of fixes to profiles, tabs, and sync made it even smoother. I’ve used it so much I actually hit my usage limits. There’s also a mobile app in the works, so the team clearly isn’t slowing down.

Now, I’ve been using Dia on and off for a long time too, and I don’t have much to complain about, really. It’s a solid browser. My one observation is that something like Aside feels like it was built around AI from the ground up, while Dia and Chrome feel more like they made room for AI after the fact. 

Aside also isn’t the only newcomer trying this. I also just spent a day with another AI browser called Polar, which is aimed at people doing repetitive work like sales and recruiting rather than everyday users. It did the tasks well, but the credit system is bound to be restrictive, and it cooked my MacBook, so it still feels early.

None of this means Dia is standing still. Its long-awaited Spaces feature, a favorite from the Arc days, has finally started showing up for early bird users, and Josh Miller says a wider rollout is close. Add Windows support this fall, and Dia has a strong stretch ahead.

Of course, an August teaser and an August release aren’t the same thing. We’ll see if Aside can hold the date. Furthermore, being first to launch won’t necessarily be an advantage, especially if performance issues and bugs ruin the experience.

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