I tried all the usual and suggested fixes but all to no avail. Then....
My solution, which is working like a charm? I long tapped the search bar, dragged it to remove it and then replaced it with the Firebox search bar Widget instead. Now I have a search bar at the top of my phone's home screen again, and if click on it I also have a microphone on my keyboard. I can both talk and type entries, or talk and then edit anything wrong before entering and everything else seems to be the same--it still seems to be using Google to search--only technically the search browser is Firefox rather than Chrome, but that's like no big deal on my phone, right? I just needed a search bar widget that gives me a microphone on the keyboard and now I have it and it is still Google search and all that.
This solution only takes seconds: Click and hold on the Google search bar until you see the "x remove" appear and then drag that search bar there to remove it. Next, touch and hold any clear area on your home screen until the selection menu appears, go to > widgets and just find the Firefox search bar widget that looks pretty much exactly like the Chrome search bar widget you just removed. Select it and then drag to place it on your home screen or wherever you want it, like maybe right where your previous search bar was just moments ago. It looks exactly the same and all will pretty much be the same, except you will have a microphone on your keyboard again. It doesn't matter if it's a "Firefox" search bar widget or that the results window is technically in a Firefox browser rather than Chrome browser, because once I enter something it still searches using Google and still gives me results to select from.
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