Most of the time I can just turn in the general direction of the device I want to "listen".

Dedicated wakeup chips can be designed to have a different matrix shoved in for the word they're detecting. Google presumably did not do this, but they could have.

More than one should never answer. I wonder if location is misconfigured on individual devices, but I wouldn't bet against a bug.

We have to whisper to the Hub Max in the kitchen, from 3 inches away, and the Minis in the dining room and living room often still hear. If I don't whisper, even the ones upstairs hear. Sometimes I get 2 timers for my cooking, sometimes I get one on the wrong speaker. Then I try to cancel the timer, and the Hub Max hears instead and tells me I have no timers set.

The Hub Max asks on the screen if the wrong device responded. It clearly ignores your response, as the wrong device also responds the next time. I have pressed that button easily over 50x before I gave up and stopped.

Something clearly changed ~6mo-1yr ago because they never used to be this bad. It used to be that they would all listen, then only the closest one (that heard the command the loudest) would respond. Problem is, when I'm cooking the Hub Max is 1ft away and the rest are through (often multiple) walls metres away from me.

There aren't many legitimate ways to have people audibly self hypnotise themselves using your brand.

It's very black mirror.

~ Fatso

~ Pitstop

~ Katsup

~ Yachtsman

~ Scotsmen

~ Batsman

There don't seem to be many, admittedly.