The plot thickens, not even able to disable "Google Assistant", much less "Ok Google"...

[PGrey]

The plot thickens, not even able to disable "Google Assistant", much less "Ok Google"...

Wasted the majority of my day on the phone with Google support, who more or less were stumped, but said they'd been dealing with a lot of the same.

This was after my factory reset the other day, I was *still* seeing a pretty dramatic battery drain from "Google Assistant", despite disabling "Ok Google" (see my other thread today).

Turns out this is because I wasn't actually able to disable "Ok Google", because even disabling the Google Assistant (under Settings->Google->Phone->GoogleAssistant->enable/disable) doesn't do it, my phone still continues to respond to "Ok Google", truly strange. I can also still swipe-right, for the Google Assistant page.
The bigger issue is that it's also nuking my battery, about 15-20% an hour, in this mode, whereas before the Google Assistant update (3 days ago, about a week after Oreo, which was fine) it wasn't even on the "battery radar".

Google was zero help, they refused to troubleshoot beyond that point, saying I needed to get Huawei to repair the phone (really, for a s/w update to a Google component???) at that point.
Huawei said they'd look at it, and likely send a refurbished unit, which I saw no point in, my phone is basically like new, at least externally, always in a case, with a screen protector, and it looks to me like I'd just be in the same boat, with a refurb.

If someone has any thoughts to the contrary, I'm open, but at this point I'm done with straight-up Google devices; I think once they "abandon" a device the the 6P, they simply don't to due-diligence testing before pushing updates.

Also open to anyone else who's worked around this, somehow, or has any other ideas/thoughts, I'm sort of stumped.
If I put it into airplane mode, then I'm okay, this seems to be one of the few things that trigger something in GA that turns off the "Ok Google" listen mode, but then my phone isn't much of a phone, really, it's just a "small, isolated tablet".

 

[NotFromHere]

Re: The plot thickens, not even able to disable "Google Assistant", much less "Ok Google"...

I'm not having this issue at all with OK Google, but it should definitely be possible to turn it off. Have you gone into Settings | Google | Search | Voice | "Ok Google" Detection and turned it off there? If that doesn't turn it off, then I don't know what will.

 

[PGrey]

Re: The plot thickens, not even able to disable "Google Assistant", much less "Ok Google"...

Yep, turned it off there, at first, didn't work.

Then, I went in and turned off "Google Assistant" (the whole deal), which also didn't work, it was *still* responding to "Ok Google", and I can use the assistant, same as if were off.
And accordingly, my battery was draining as at the high rate.

I did see one person who went in and disabled the permissions for "Google" to use the Microphone (not the same exact issue, but similar) and had success that way.

The downside is that I actually like to use the Assistant, from time to time, maybe 15-20 times weekly, but I guess I could switch back to Cortana, and hope that the similar Mic permissions don't have the same implications.

I'm really just pretty darn frustrated, spent the whole day talking to various Google CS agents, who all made me script through things again (since they kept hanging up, while trying to conference in Huawei), and then more or less admitted they had a problem, but had no real great solutions, other than purchasing an "interim phone", or similar.
Clearly they broke something here, it was directly tied to the update for GA 3 days ago, but their response is mostly just "gee that's too bad, good luck talking to the 3rd party that knows nothing about our mess".
I sort of thought I was alone in this mess, until I broadened things to "Unable to disable Google Assistant Ok Google", and then I found tons of posts, across multiple boards, and realized the issue was actually pretty big.

I think that ultimately the message is that "if you can't afford to buy a new flagship, because we broke yours in 13 months of ownership, then you really should be buying low-mid-level devices", so you can afford to upgrade frequently enough to be functional.
It's a strange deal, I used to work on h/w tests, and we targeted most of our functionality to be working at least 3-5 years out. Sure, manufacturers want people to buy new stuff every year, but when phones are in the 700-1000 range, it puts things in a little different position.

I get it, 100%, if *I* broke my phone, then it's my tough deal, I guess I have to buy a cheaper phone to "bridge" for awhile, but in this case I've ended up with something just a bit better than "bricked", based on the fact it's only good for maybe 5-6 hours, of VERY occasional use, before it's dead. I'd probably be better off I'd boot-looped, because then Google is taking it seriously (sort of).