It's not for the purpose of notifications, it's for the purpose of sync. If you do not initiate sync process after even own messages, immediately after launch o

It's not for the purpose of notifications, it's for the purpose of sync. If you do not initiate sync process after even own messages, immediately after launch of the app you'll see only incoming messages, and own will load up after a significant delay. That is not what chat users are used to these days. Also: read markers. You definitely want notifications of messages you've read elsewhere to disappear from the iPhone. Currently, there is no good way to do that.