I picked up a Pixel 5 and installed LineageOS but with the GAPPS installed to start with. As I remove individual services from my daily use I remove them from my Pixel. So far I have swapped Google Photos to Immich, Google Maps to Organic Maps. I am working on getting off Google Drive/Docs this week. The hardest will be Gmail. Thankfully I own my own domain so im looking at switching over to https://www.migadu.com/ for my email services.

https://f-droid.org/ has been my Google Play replacement for so long I totally forgot about it, get it installed and you will find lots of applications you can start using to replace corporate/techno kingdom owned closed apps.

I was in the same boat until a few days ago. I bought a used Pixel 6a for $68 USD and installed GrapheneOS on it.

It really is simple to switch it over, and buying the phone used means no money went directly to Google. I haven't had any issues running any of the apps that I'm accustomed to, all in all a great decision.

Try these two apps out. They'll help you remove deeply integrated stuff. If you don't need the Google Play store you can outright firewall it from internet access.

1. Universal Android Debloater. It'll guide you through removing whatever extra stuff the manufacturer put on that you don't want. It's great.
2. Netguard. This will let you see all the apps and services that are making calls out, and what they are calling. Then you can simply block what you want and deny access to the internet for any proprietary app.

Which phone do you have? You can get pretty cheap devices that you can put lineage onto. For example, I am running the OnePlus Nord N200 that was released in 2021 and it cost me like $250 and I have lineage OS running on it with no Google Apps or services.

One thing you can do is disable Google Play Services on your Googled phone. While it's not the absolute best, it will help.

Make sure you have F-Droid and Aurora store installed.

Try searching for the GSI (generic system image) for your device. I'm using one rn from PHH and it works great. Though you have to install TWRP and dealing with bootloader unlocking. But use LineageOS if possible.

Or just use universal Android debloater to debloat (and to also degoogle the phone).

is this a rant or are you looking for actionable info? if it's the latter, you need to determine which version you got exactly. Xiaomi ships different versions under the same name. like, they start off with Snapdragon SoC, then swap in Mediatek, then maybe slip in previous gen Snapdragons with only 4G/no NFC, etc.

you also didn't specify if you've already unlocked the bootloader, which is an (at least) week-long process.

your best bet would be to get rid of that phone, then go to LineageOS devices page, use the Filter to filter for current version (i.e. 22 at the moment) and then look for used devices you can get at cheaply. e.g. although it's a 5-year old model, the Poco F1 is an almost ideal hacker phone - fast SoC (faster than the one you got), available with 8 GB RAM, has the widest OS support (including PostmarketOS), it's not glued shut so you can swap the battery, etc.

edit: forgot to mention, you want a device that has official LineageOS support. that's not the only way to get a non-google-infested phone, but then you're dependent on some rando from XDA to ship you updates when they get around to it.

if your phone is supported by e/os/ you can try that. it's almost completely degoogled, i'm using it and it works. if you really want to de-android your phone, your best bet would be postmarketos. i use that, too, but not full-time. it mostly works, depending on your device.

you can try the GSI of iodé ☞ https://blog.iode.tech/test-out-our-new-iodeos-generic-system-image-gsi/

The iodéOS GSI will allow you to install iodéOS on many more devices that we currently don’t support. So if your device was originally shipped with Android Oreo (8) or greater version, and is not specifically supported, try installing our GSI

I have a Pixel 4a5G and it is still going strong with CalyxOS. In fact, they are about to release Android 15 for this device, which lost all its support from Google at 14. Using one of these open source, pro-privacy alternative OS's is the only true way to degoogle your phone, so I would suggest buying a new or used unlocked Pixel phone. I will never go back to running on pure Google again.

Seems there's no custom ROMs for your phone so I suggest debloating. There are some apps that don't require root but if you have root It'll help, you can install a custom webview and other stuff

LineageOS is a good step in the right direction GrapheneOS is the best, but obvously restricted to Pixela device due to their hardware.

There are no alternatives I know that are compatible with my phone

No need to code your own(!) until you've tried the crdroid ROM available on the XDA forums...

You're right though, there don't seem to be a lot of actively developed ROMs, but still one more than expected?

Oh, and I just found a request for an /e/os build for your model(? mind the 5G/4G differences). Maybe back that if relevant 👍