Absolute easiest way to install Google Play on 5.8

There have been several ways bantered about and many are still having no luck. I have done it several different ways and it has worked for me. To make it work you need five different APK's. They are Google Play Services, Google Play Store, Google Services Framework, Google Calendar Sync, and Google Contacts Sync. You can download these individually from APK mirror (http://www.apkmirror.com/) or download the Google Installer_V2.0 for MIUI (http://xiaomitips.com/download/google-installer-app/). This is an all in one installer and is in Chinese, but if you just select the button at the bottom of the app, the install will start. Do not open any of the services yet when the APK's install. You will need to reboot your device at the point everything is installed.
Upon reboot, simply select Google Play and login. I hope this helps. When you install the rom, via TWRP, make sure everything is deleted and to are doing a clean install. You can then install SuperSu for root. It already has a Chinese version installed, but when I ran root required apps, I was notified that root was not installed. Once you have root, you can uninstall all the Le-bloat.

Easiest and most stable Mi5 setup

Hello everyone,

I have been seduced by the Mi5 and got one. Even I work in IT, I have never flashed a phone and actually didn't plan to do it when I bought the Mi5. I read that the original Chinese ROM had English in it.
So I was happy to just use this ROM in English and that's it (I'm not picky in term of UI).
But I had several bad surprised when I received it:
- many things are still in Chinese
- several applications, even if they are in English, present/search Chinese results (actually I should have thought about it earlier)
- I installed Google Play but some services keep on failing and several apps won't install or update

As a result, I'm finding myself having to flash the phone with a custom ROM in order to get something correct.
As explained in the title I would like to have some advises on which ROMs would be the easiest and most stable to have? I'm not looking the for most fancy or classy ROM. I just want something that would be stable, run smoothly GApps and popular apps (Facebook, WhatsApp, etc...) and works with the most vital/used features of the phone (Wifi, Bluetooth, finger-print, camera, etc...). I have seen threads about several ROMs (Cyanogen, Xiaomi.eu, Resurrection Remix, Official Global Multi, etc...) but don't know which one would suit me best.

Finally, I have done my homework before posting this message, and read how to flash a ROM (especially on the xda-university). Here are the general required steps I have noted:

1. Enter in USB debug mode


2. Install a custom recovery app? (I've seen you can flash them too?)


3. Download you customer ROM into the SDcard


4. Use the custom recovery to backup your phone (I actually don't need to backup since my phone is empty)


5. Install the rom by selecting the zip in the root of the SDcard

That said I have seen several other methods and terms on various threads talking about specific stages or the process.
People are "rooting" the phone. Is that necessary for what I want to do? I guess so.
People are are using "flashboot". I read it's another way to flash? What is best for the Mi5?

Please don't hesitate to redirect me to some guides/tutorials if there some fundamentals I have missed.

Thanks! :good: