Google is getting ready to retire Gems in Gemini and replace them with a more flexible system called Skills. The transition will begin this November, with Google telling users that their existing Gems will automatically be migrated starting November 17, 2026.

The change is already appearing in Gemini with a notice that reads, “Gems will become skills starting Nov 17, 2026.” Google says users can continue using their Gems until each one is migrated.

Gems have been Google’s way of letting Gemini users create customized versions of the chatbot with their own instructions. They can be configured for recurring tasks, specific workflows, writing styles, or particular areas of expertise, essentially giving Gemini a reusable set of instructions instead of requiring users to paste the same prompt over and over.

Skills are designed to take that concept further. Google describes them as reusable custom instructions that can be applied across Gemini tasks. Rather than switching to a dedicated Gem, users can invoke a skill directly within a Gemini chat, currently by typing / followed by its name, with Google saying this will eventually become @. Gemini can also automatically recognize when a skill is relevant to a prompt and apply it without the user explicitly selecting it.

The other major change is that skills can be stacked. Google says multiple skills can be combined in a single conversation, allowing users to build more complex workflows from smaller, reusable instructions. For example, a writing-focused skill could potentially be combined with another skill that handles a particular formatting or research workflow.

That makes the transition more than a simple name change. Gems were essentially separate customized versions of Gemini, while Skills are intended to behave more like reusable building blocks that can follow users into their regular Gemini conversations.

Your Gems aren’t being left behind

For existing users, the good news is that Google isn’t asking everyone to recreate their Gems manually.

Google says it will automatically recreate existing Gems as Skills when Gems are removed. Supported knowledge files attached to a Gem will also be transitioned automatically.

Users who want to move ahead of the automatic transition can manually recreate their Gems as Skills. Google provides instructions for copying the Gem’s name, description and instructions into a new Skill. If a Gem contains knowledge files, those can be downloaded and added to the new Skill as well.

There is one important wrinkle, though: Google says not every Gem feature is currently supported by Skills. Several tools that worked with Gems, including video creation, music creation, Canvas, Deep Research and Guided Learning, are currently listed as unsupported. Google says more functionality is coming, including the ability to share Skills and add files from Google Drive and notebooks from Gemini Notebook.

Google is also changing how conversations associated with these custom instructions are organized. Unlike Gems, Skills don’t have their own dedicated page listing recent chats. Since a Skill can be used in any Gemini chat, those conversations simply appear in the regular side panel.

The broader rollout will happen in stages. Google says Gems will be removed for personal Google accounts in November 2026, followed by Workspace business, enterprise and nonprofit accounts in March 2027, and Workspace education accounts in June 2027. Opal and Gems from Google Labs are also scheduled to go away alongside the November transition for personal accounts.

So, if you’ve built a collection of Gems over the past couple of years, there’s no need to panic-delete or rebuild everything tonight. Google is planning to handle the migration automatically. But if you rely on a particularly important Gem—or one that uses files or features that Skills don’t yet support—it may be worth checking how the transition works before November 17.

Google’s move essentially turns Gems from standalone custom assistants into reusable pieces of a larger Gemini workflow. And considering how much more aggressively Google is pushing Gemini toward task automation, Skills look like they’re meant to become a much more central part of the experience.