How to disable the Google home assistant on the Google Pixel 2

The pixel 2 is great but has one annoying feature — The home assistant app which constently nags for permissions. Why not just disable it? Or switch to another home assistant app. I’ve gone with none — Most other android devices don’t have an assistant or anything launch from long pressing the home button anyway.

Disable the home assistant completely by:

Settings / Default Apps / Assist app — And choose none.

This will disable the branded google circles appearing on long press of the home button.

I bought a google pixel 2 but not for the assistant features that were sold to me by google. I don’t care much for the voice assistant, I primarily use my smartphones for reading news and consuming media.