Ursäkta min syntax om den är lite avstängd, men jag skulle förmodligen prova något sånt här.
SELECT people.id,
people.avatar,
people.firstname,
people.lastname,
LEFT(msg.message, 90) AS message,
msg.seen,
msg.date
FROM people
INNER JOIN (SELECT message, seen, date, sender_id
FROM messages GROUP By sender_id
ORDER By date DESC LIMIT 1) msg
ON people.id = msg.sender_id
WHERE reciever_id = '". $user_data['id'] ."'