Answers
Does Naven work in countries where Google is blocked?
Mostly, yes. Naven routes its Firebase traffic through its own domain rather than calling Google's servers directly, so a network that blocks Google does not break the product. Google sign-in specifically cannot work that way.
Many web apps depend on Google-hosted infrastructure without appearing to, and in a country that blocks those domains they fail in confusing ways — the page loads and then nothing works.
Naven's relay sends that traffic through navenapp.com instead, which means the only domain that has to be reachable is Naven's own.
What cannot be relayed is a sign-in popup that has to open a Google page. Signing in with an emailed code works regardless, and that is the default route anyway.