iPhone to Android - contacts and SMS messages

I want to retain as much data as possible from my iPhone, most importantly my contacts list. In theory my phone contacts should have been sync'd with my Google contacts but that doesn't seem to have worked completely. Instead I made use of Contacts Sync by Playa Apps (a name that inspires trust). The interface was very simple and, although it cost me a couple of quid, it let me push all my iCloud contacts to Google contacts in a few minutes. There was probably a free way to do this but really it wasn't worth finding.

On to SMS messages and this is where I'm reminded one of the reasons I want to escape Apple control. These messages are my data and they are backed up into my iCloud account but can I get at them? Or can I download the iCloud backup and pull them out? Of course not. Cue an hour of hunting around for something which would help me and not try to charge me $20+ for the privilege of extracting my own data. 

Finally, there is light at the end of the tunnel. If I manually back up my iPhone via iTunes (like in the Olden Times) then I can extract the SMS messages using AllYourTexts which is simple to use and free. Finally, I have a folder of my message history, freed from the Apple Prison.

I'm expecting the Android import to be significantly easier but even if it isn't I now have the data saved.