Years ago, before it was Google Assistant, my phone could hear me say OK Google while sitting in a cupholder driving down the road. Now my phone frequently fails to respond when I'm holding it near my face in a silent room. But somehow it still has more false positive activations. And they haven't added a single new feature I actually find useful in that entire time.
I've tried retaining several times. It's certainly possible that my newer phones have poorly designed microphones. But all of the phones in question were Nexus/Pixel so it would still be Google's fault.
