Google Assistant… How do I prioritize thee?

My Google Assistant runs everywhere. It’s on my Google Pixel 4XL, in my Pixel Buds, in my Mobvoi Watch, and on my displays and smart speakers. It’s truly available wherever I need it. Lately, however, I’ve been running into an issue as to which instance responds to my queries.

There appears to be a native hierarchy. From what I gather, it responds in the following order:

• Pixel Buds
• Smart Displays and Speakers
• Phone

This, however, is not necessarily the order I really want.

Here’s the scenario… I’m standing in my kitchen getting ready to make a pour-over coffee. I tend to time it out to 3 minutes with a timer. I also happen to be listening to a podcast, or just wearing my Pixel Buds in general. When I ask my Google Assistant to set a timer, the Pixel Buds start it on my phone. But I’m in my kitchen and my display is right on the counter next to me. Shouldn’t the timer start there? Now I have to pull out my phone, unlock it and periodically tap the screen so that it doesn’t go to standby (hiding the current timer).

It seems to me like there should be some sort of Presence Detection available between the devices I’ve registered my Google Assistant on. Or some way to set priority, like always set timers on a Display or Smart Speaker if in the vicinity, then fallback to the phone.

The same could go for triggering Music or Podcast playback. If I’m near a Display or Smart Speaker, yet I trigger Google Assistant and my Pixel Buds respond, could it ask me if I want to play it on that Displays’s default audio player first? Then fall back to the Buds.

I know this may seem like nitpicking and I’ve been truly impressed with all the functionality it can do across all surfaces. These subtle things would prove to make it more useful in most situations. If there’s some way to do the things I’ve mentioned above, I would love to hear how to set them up.