What does this mean? I don’t have a search bar on my home screen, and I’m not using a third-party launcher.
Depends what phone you have - Pixels have a search bar on the home screen by default (not sure if they can be turned off on later models, maybe?)
I haven’t used anything other than Nova on my Pixel 7 Pro since I almost immediately realized I couldn’t find a way to turn it off in Pixel Launcher. The whole ad campaign that they ran around personalization was a complete joke, feels like an iClone and I hate it.
Agreed - although, just to check you know about Nova being bought out a few months ago by a firm known for data harvesting? If you did and/or are fine with it no worries. If you didn’t, it’s worth looking into (and sorry to be the bearer of bad news).
I used Nova for years, but have switched to Total - less slick and user friendly to set up, but very customisable, even more than Nova.
You may be using the default launcher that came with your phone, but if you don’t have the search bar, then it’s still a 3rd party launcher. Google’s launcher forces an immovable search bar on to your home screen.
-Edit-
It’s possible this has changed in the years I’ve been using an alternate launcher. It’s been several years since I switched and never really checked back to see if it was still true.