There was a mass of discussion about this in the early days of Abarth 500. It was twitchy, fell over a lot and only worked with a handful of Sony Ericsson phones.
I got a text message on the the way to work this morning and to my surprise the Italian lady offered to read it out to me, not heard that for 5 years.......
No the issue is, I changed my car to a new 180 Competizione about the same time as I changed my phone to a Galaxy S6 so I don't actually know if B&M text reader on the TFT equipped cars has been updated or their is something new in my phone that is allowing this to work.
Has anyone with a TFT equipped car had their text message reader burst into life?

It was a treat to hear the robot read out rude jokes.  That was with a SE phone back in the day.  Not a whisper since HTC/ iPhone.  Would be intrigued to hear if it worked with iPhone...

The phone needs to support MAP (Message Access Profile), something which is still a bit hit and miss, for the text messages to appear IIRC.  I think CyanogenMOD ROMs have support and apparently new Samsung and some Motorolas.  iOS have supported it since iPhone4.  Jolla doesn't at the moment although they might be able to use folgore's suggestion.  Getting my phone to work with it is on my todo list when I have enough time to write support.

With regards to iPhone users, the guidance I've found is to open Settings app on phone>Bluetooth connections should be a button next to Blue&me to view info or something, turn on "Show Notifications".  Restart phone.

The automatic phone book updates for car systems usually require PBAP (Phone Book Access Profile) or IrMC.  Don't know what Blue&Me uses off hand but imagine it's PBAP.

This is interesting because on my 160, with a Galaxy note 4, the text reader only started working towards the last few months of having the car. I hadn't changed anything before?

It seems to work with my 180 from new with my Note 4 though...

I don't know why!? lol

Annoyingly though it doesn't show the contact name next to the number when I receive a call / Message even though I copied the address book as part of the initial set up.

Silly question but how is the Blue and Me system updated.?
Cheers Phill

Tried following instructions (never very good at that) and ended up with a bunch of unzipped files from these folders that share the same names...

ConfReader_conv.ARM920
ConfReader_Lh.ARM926

Perhaps I've had too much wine, but these instructions don't inspire confidence...

Instructions to find the car configuration - Ver. 1.0
AIDED MODE FOR THE FIRST STEP: INSTRUCTIONS TO FIND OUT THE TYPE OF BLUE&ME INSTALLED ON THE VEHICLE
The procedure shown on the following pages is useful to find the model and generation of Blue&Me for the vehicle. You need to follow all the steps sequentially for a correct completion of the procedure.
1. Unzip the BlueMeConfigurator.zip file downloaded into a suitable dedicated directory (e.g. c:\Blue&Me). At the end check that the following files are present:
2. Arrange a USB memory stick, with capacity at least 128 Mb, formatting it in FAT32 to erase all previous data.
NOTE It is advisable to use USB memory sticks with capacity below 256 Gb.
3. Store on the USB memory stick, in the main folder, all previously downloaded files, making sure that they correspond. The updating is NOT performed if the files are on the memory stick inside a folder.
WARNING before place the USB memory stick into the USB port of the vehicle, the mobile must be switched off.
The updating time depends on the vehicle and is less than one minute; during this step, the buttons on the steering wheel should not be pressed
Instructions to find the car configuration - Ver. 1.0
4. With vehicle stopped and ignition key turned to STOP, place the USB memory stick in the USB port of the Blue&Me™.
5. Place the ignition key to MAR-ON position, WITHOUT STARTING THE VEHICLE. For a correct displaying of the warning messages on the display, press the "Mode" or "Menu" button to clean any previous warning message (e.g. door open).
WARNING The USB memory stick should remain inserted also if the information "RESTARTING..." or "INSTALLATION IN PROGRESS"(“INSTALLING”) is displayed, followed by date and time.
6. The instrument panel displays the message: "UPDATING" or "UPDATE IN PROGRESS and the voice command "update started" is reproduced. If this does not occur, place the key to STOP position and to MAR-ON again. During update, the display shows some messages about the progress.
7. At the end of the procedure, the instrument panel display shows the message "COMPLETE" or "UPDATE COMPLETED" and the voice message "update completed, remove the USB memory stick".
8. Turn the ignition key to STOP position and take out the USB memory stick, containing the file BMConf.xml.
9. Insert the USB memory stick into the PC; go back to the www.blueandme.net site, section Support -> Download, click on the button "Fill in the filters in assisted mode", click on "Load File" and select the file BMConf.xml in the main folder of the USB memory stick.
10. The drop-down menus (Car model, Blue&Me generation, Blue&Me model, Language Change) are now configured according to the Blue&Me available on the car; you can download the SW update and relevant instructions by clicking on the button at the bottom of the page. DO NOT modify the drop-down menus until the end of downloading.
If this guide has not been useful, you could always refer to Customer Service, calling the freephone number shown on the sun visor or on the Owner Handbook of your car.