If you don’t have a conversation started with the contact whose status you would like to see, you’ll have to create a new chat. Press the chat bubble icon in the upper right corner.
“Online” means that your contact is using the app at that moment. “Last seen at…” means that your contact was last using the app at the specified time. If your contact is in the process of contacting you, you might see an action instead, such as “typing” or “recording audio”.