Add the Search Icon or add a shortcut.

I also can't believe I need to create an account here to address this but, that "overwhelming" amount of feedback 1P received 3 years ago was from a place of privilege even then. Those users preferred less accessibility for all in favor of familiarity for them, except now that it's been so long, there is no familiarity for them either. Especially because favoring a bottom tab bar for all essential functionality is so ubiquitous and the standard now. Not to mention, because it took 1P so long to revert the original changes, the feedback complaining that progress in accessibility and usability of mobile UI is a bad thing is 3 years old. I've been a user since 2016 and when 1P8 came out, I remember laughing to myself about these users. They're everywhere, refusing change/progress just because it's different. It's only recently that tech companies have started giving in to those types of people and the world is worse for it.

I have an iphone 13 mini and can't reach that tiny thin search bar at the top of the screen. I guess I have to keep this phone forever now, I can't imagine how much more awful this will when I'm forced to forsake my own needs with a larger screen. I don't even have anything that people would consider to be an accessibility need and it's unusable. It's not like my hands are tiny or anything. I can only imagine how much worse it is for someone with "real" accessibility needs. Although, I guess if I can no longer reach that search bar now, 1P is making me have real accessibility needs as well.

A swipe down gesture (emulating spotlight/siri search in ios) to focus the search bar will also NEVER be as accessible as the search icon in the bottom tab bar. Why do you think Apple themselves added the little search icon/text at the bottom of your ios home page? So many users out there don't know and will never use features that aren't immediately obvious. This is even evident from the response just above me mentioning that you can long tap on the 1Password app icon get to search. We're currently in 1Password forums, if 1P's power users and the people interacting here don't know or use a feature like that, no one will. Coincidentally, this is the reason Apple removed 3d/force touch as well. It was too expensive to include when the majority of users never used it. With gestures, you're immediately alienating users with accessibility needs as well as those who don't RTFM. (which is almost every end user?) At this rate, 1P will need a new user tutorial for mobile too.

The response in this thread that Apple makes a reachability feature is also pitiful. Does 1P think they're absolved of dealing with accessibility issues because of this? These changes have quite literally de-prioritized accessibility and modern familiarity in favor of reverting to 2012 design for the loud privileged users of 3 years ago.

On a personal note, I don't actually need ANY of the bottom tabs EXCEPT for search. Certainly not in the mobile UI. Watchtower could live in the "profile" icon up top, items tab is pointless when search exists, home tab is useless as well. In the time it takes to figure out which section of the home tab the thing I'm looking for is in, I could have already found it with search. Funnily enough, I left this feedback in some of your surveys recently asking about how to make home tab useful. Imagine my surprise when 1P decide to eliminate the 1 useful thing in the app for me, in order to prioritize all of the parts I don't need.

Since home tab is customizable, maybe 1P could add a search module there? For example, if I could add a search module to the home tab that changed functionality if I removed all other modules so that when I navigate there, the search/keyboard would open with the old search functionality? Or ya know, just put search back in the bottom tab like 95% of modern apps.