Airbnb uses a mix of both the variations. They’ve got a search bar on the landing screen and the landing screen is the search/explore tab.

Given the context of Airbnb I believe that it makes a lot of sense. By doing this they cater to two types of users — users with a specific destination in mind who would use the search bar (users with clear intention), and users who might not have a specific destination in mind, and are in the process of figuring out the destination (users who need kind of an exploratory search).

Conclusion

Both the variations have pros and cons. Both of them are suited for specific use cases. Going through all the examples above, we can conclude that there are two factors that determine which search to use — intentions of users coming to the app and the possible offerings of the app.

Don’t forget to clap for it

10 is good, 20 is great, but 50 would be amazing. Just press and hold the button. :P

Hope this article can guide you pick the right search model for your app. If you have any feedback, let me know in the comments.