Is this statement "Although Android gives focus to the first text field in your layout when the activity starts" still valid?

I found the subject statement in Handle input method visibility section

I would like to try to open my keyboard on activity start. However, my only EditText is not focused on activity start. My layout is as below:

<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
tools:context=".MainActivity">


<EditText
    android:id="@+id/search"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:hint="Hint"
    android:inputType="text"
    android:imeOptions="actionSend"
    android:focusable="true"
    android:focusableInTouchMode="true">

</EditText>

</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

I wonder if it is because the latest Android Studio view palette has removed the requestFocus tag when I drag an EditText into the layout. I have some memory that the requestFocus tag did come with the EditText by default.

Moreover, I saw many questions which wanted to turn off the auto focus on activity start. This makes me even more confused. Anyone encountered this before?

The statement "Although Android gives focus to the first text field in your layout when the activity starts" was true in the past, but it may not be true for all current versions of Android or for all types of layouts.

In general, when an Activity starts in Android, the system will attempt to give focus to the first focusable View in the layout. By default, this is usually the first EditText or TextInputLayout element in the XML layout file. However, this behavior can be affected by various factors such as the layout structure, the presence of other focusable elements, and the focusability settings of individual views.

Therefore, it's always a good practice to explicitly specify the initial focus of your activity by setting the android:focusable and android:focusableInTouchMode attributes in your XML layout file or by using the requestFocus() method in your code. This will ensure that the user's input is directed to the intended field and will provide a better user experience.