Per favore scusa la mia sintassi se è un po' storta, ma probabilmente proverei qualcosa del genere.
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'] ."'