Real talk for a second. I work in mobile repair and I see people come in asking about phone cloning at least three times a week. Most of them just want to move to a new phone and keep their texts. Simple stuff.
But here is what I always tell them. Before you clone anything do these three things:
First check how much data you actually have. Go to Settings then Storage and look at Messages. If it is under 1GB any method in this thread will work fine. If it is over 5GB you want a wired connection or it will take forever.
Second make sure your target phone has enough free space. I have seen people try to clone 64GB of data onto a phone with 32GB total storage. Obviously that is not going to work.
Third and this is the big one. Write down your two factor authentication apps and backup codes BEFORE you do anything. Authenticator apps like Google Authenticator do not always transfer properly during a clone. If you lose access to those codes you could get locked out of your own accounts.
The free methods work. I have watched customers use Samsung Smart Switch, Apple Quick Start, and Google restore dozens of times. They all get the job done. But preparation is everything.
One more thing. If you are switching from iPhone to Android or the other way around, expect to lose some message formatting. MMS group chats especially can get messy during cross platform transfers. That is just the reality of it right now.