Can I archive SMS messages ?

Bomiboll wrote:

The link is suggesting iMazing app. It is  for transfer of files and data between iOS devices. Not what I need.

iMazing can save & print Messages to PDF, Excel, CSV and/or TXT and attachments ... as well as transfer them to a new iPhone and archive them in iMazing backups. Basic details here -> https://imazing.com/transfer-iphone-text-messages-to-computer

There is no built-in archiving.

Third-party apps may be (are) available: https://lifehacker.com/you-can-export-your-entire-imessage-history-1850000632

Easiest means using only built-in tools is to open Messages, scroll to the oldest message in the conversation, enable screen recording, and manually scroll through the conversation.

If these are specifically SMS messages, your carrier may have archiving options.

Bomiboll wrote:

The link is suggesting iMazing app. It is  for transfer of files and data between iOS devices. Not what I need.

Besides, it is not cheap

The manual method very tedious when you have lots of messages

I think you perhaps didn't really read all the information about iMazing. The one and only thing I use it for is for archiving messages. It does it quite well. No, it's not cheap. But as saving messages is very important to me, I find it well worth the price. It's a single purchase, not a subscription.

This one can export messages from an iPhone and/or from a Mac. It is relatively inexpensive:

https://deciphertools.com/decipher-textmessage.html

Decipher Text Message

There are actually quite a number of these types of utilities, you can find them searching online.

The link mentions three apps, one of which is free.

If you would prefer a built-in exporter, send Apple your feedback: Product Feedback - Apple