No microphone icon on LG keyboard

[AC Question]

New to Android, new to LG. Hope someone can help me!

Unlocked US version / AT&T prepaid plan / APN changed to NXTGENPHONE / LG Keyboard selected.

Trying to get voice texting enabled. I have the settings icon to the left of the spacebar, but the microphone is NOT one of the options on long press. I have the pen and the paste icons. I can't figure out how to get the microphone icon to show up in the long press menu. The microphone icon is not available in any of the long press menus.

I've been thru every menu I can find, text-to-speech, language & keyboard, etc., etc. Nothing I change makes a difference. Even downloaded another keyboard, ai.type, which has a microphone icon, but when I press it, the hamburger menu in the left corner spins, but nothing happens and no "listening" is enabled.

Read online about enabling Google Search. I have the Google search bar, but no app that's called "Google Search" and didn't find one in the store. I'm not sure what this means to enable it or where to do that.

I've restarted phone several times as well.

Thanks for any assistance.