[modeless]

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.

[petee]

Sometimes retraining the voice model improves the response.

Personally, I also encounter clogged mic ports, which kills my OK google distance

[modeless]

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.