Why didn't this come out when China blocked Signal? And what is Signal doing about China blocking Signal's phone verification system? Can't talk to my parents-in-law in China now without installing that spyware WeChat.
I mean, unfair to put expectations on Signal to solve problems (especially right away). It could be that the solution didn't occur to someone until recently.
They've had years to get rid of of needing a phone number and they've talked about it for years. It's arguably a bigger issue for many that internet blocking, as that can be trivially worked around with a VPN or proxy.
Signal seems to have had the proxy for a while. I'm guessing that China blocked them, they started developing this, released it, Iran blocked them, they signal boost this feature off the back of the second blockage.