Threads would look to enhance real-time engagements in the app by implementing active indicators where it would be able to notify when a user is online.
Now, with every active user, there will be a green dot on the edge of their profile pic alerting other users that that particular user is in the app right now.

This might get more people in participating, knowing they have a higher likelihood of getting a response, which might lead to further communication in the application.

Private accounts will have an active status, just like regular accounts do, users will be able to turn off their active status if they so choose; users with private accounts will only see the active status of the followers.

It's one step further toward enabling a real-time conversation in the app, that will push Threads a little closer to what Twitter once was, although its aversion to political content, and whatever topics the Threads team defines as "political" remains a restriction in this respect.

The real value of Twitter was that you could tune into the pulse of what was happening at any time and get a real sense of the crux of an issue or event through real-time tweets. Sure, there were also spammers adding in trending hashtags and clogging up live feeds. Even so, though, Twitter remained the best place to go to stay in touch with whatever was happening on a given day, and the only platform that didn't lose that feel through algorithmic prioritization, which dilutes that immediacy.

X has leaned more into that algorithmic approach, which makes sense, as that's what drives more engagement. But of course, you're still able to turn over to the "Following" feed and stay on top of important posts from people you follow. In addition, you can do this on the desktop version of Threads too - the app defaults to the "For You" feed - but still, Threads doesn't have that same pulse, that same sense of being connected into a global stream of consciousness that links you into the topics of the day.

Which may be partly because Threads specifically takes pains to exclude any political news, as part of a broader retreat by Meta away from news feeds entirely. After all, Meta would rather not get cited in the history books the way it was in 2016, when it suffered criticism for not doing enough to stem the spread of falsehoods that spread out and were blamed for having an effect on the presidential election in the United States, while its users have been telling Meta repeatedly that they've had it up to here with angst and fighting that divisive political posts have caused.

Reels keep people hooked, and are virtually never political content. So Meta has moved further away from those kinds of videos, but for Threads, I don't think that's gonna be sufficient enough.
In the long run, I believe that Threads will continue to loosen up its restrictions on topical discussions, probably after the elections, and live status indicators would be another step closer to making those real-time, instant discussions and engagement happen within the app.

That is an important step towards becoming a more plausible replacement for Twitter, and beating out X in the real-time social race.

Meta may not want politics now, but I do think that, soon, it will have to make more of an effort to facilitate all forms of topical discussion.