What would be the interface, talking? I know they have pinching and hand tracking, guess it's no different than people talking "to themselves" while wearing earbuds.
They may not replace the current gamut of phone features. However; I question how much of current phone functionality is actually something users strongly need/want, vs. how much is pushed by big tech. It would be pretty great if a small core feature set done well in-glass turned out to be enough to kick off large scale adoption. Ultimately I think the input is probably going to be the hardest issue
Read and send messages. Make phone calls. Navigation and maps. Set reminders. Navigate a basic Google search, even if it's just a top level summary.
Those things on glasses and I ditch my phone immediately.
Photochromatic coatings -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photochromic_lens -- have existed for a while and are sold on safety glasses, at least according to a cursory look at a large online retailer's site.
That said, I'm not sure I'd want smart glasses. Being stuck on a computer for work, I try to take some time every day to be completely free of digital things. It's hard enough to do that with a smart phone in my pocket vying for my attention. I imagine it would be only harder with smart glasses over my eyeballs.
I don't think I would be super comfortable walking around with Meta cameras seeing everything I see in my home. I'm not sure I'd trust any of the companies likely to build the product with that kind of access to my personal life.
MQ3 is crawling with cameras for ‘inside out’ tracking which hypothetically could be used in privacy violating ways. Currently these are locked down so that you can’t build interesting AR apps —- you should be able to look at a QR code and access a ‘location based’ XR app but they don’t allow it, gotta scan with a phone and transfer it to your headset with Meta’s janky app which shows all the “carelessness” of someone who doesn’t care to make money.
Meta says they will open it up though.
I might trust individual developers. I don't trust Meta though so as long as the XR app is running on Meta hardware, I'm not interested.
With that said, I don’t think these can replace phones until they’re quite a lot smaller and lighter. And to make it worse, you’d need at least two pairs - regular and sun. Possibly three if you’re someone who regularly uses safety glasses.