Google CEO Sundar Pichai on stage at the Google I/O developer conference in 2019. Image: Александр Щербаков / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped
Google is replacing Gems, the custom versions of Gemini that people set up with their own instructions, with a newer feature called skills. A notice in the Gems manager in the Gemini app says the switch starts on November 17, 2026, 9to5Google first reported.
What Google says
The banner in Gemini’s Gems manager reads: “Gems will become skills starting Nov 17, 2026.” It adds: “Starting November 17, 2026, we’ll automatically begin migrating your Gems to skills. You will be able to use your Gems until they migrate.”
So nobody has to do anything to keep their Gems, according to Google: they will be converted automatically, and they keep working until then. Google hasn’t said how long the migration will take. The notice links to a Google support page for more details, but that page didn’t exist when Android Authority checked on Monday.
What skills are
Skills do the same basic job as Gems: they let you give Gemini a set of custom instructions for a particular task. The difference is how you use them. Instead of opening a separate Gem from a side panel, you call a skill by typing a forward slash in the normal prompt box, and you can use several skills in the same conversation. That makes them closer to the reusable skills now common in other AI tools.
The catch for free users
Gems have been available to everyone, including people on Gemini’s free tier. Skills, for now, are only available to Google AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers, through the Gemini Spark tab, according to both 9to5Google and Android Authority. Google hasn’t said what will happen to free users’ Gems after November 17, or whether skills will come to the free tier before then.
Availability could be a problem in some countries too. Readers commenting on the 9to5Google report asked whether people in regions where Gemini Spark isn’t available will lose Gems without getting skills in their place. Google hasn’t answered that yet.
Until Google publishes its support page, a sensible precaution is to copy the instructions from any Gems you rely on and keep them somewhere safe, so you can recreate them if the migration doesn’t go smoothly.
Update: free users get skills too
Google has now published its support page, and it answers the big question: skills are open to anyone “over 18 signed in to a personal Google Account”, not just paying subscribers. Skills are rolling out in the main Gemini chat worldwide from September 30, and you call one by typing “/” and its name (Google says this will soon change to “@”). Free users are separately losing Gemini’s bigger models: from October 9, the free tier will offer only Flash-Lite.
- Personal accounts: Gems go away in November 2026, and Google will move them to skills automatically, including their knowledge files.
- Workspace business, enterprise and non-profit accounts: March 2027.
- Workspace education accounts: June 2027.
Not everything carries over. GitHub files aren’t supported in skills, and several tools Gems could use by default won’t work with skills, including Canvas, Deep Research, guided learning, and video and music creation. Google says sharing skills with a link and adding Google Drive files and notebooks are coming. If a Gem depends on one of the missing tools, it’s still worth saving its instructions before November.
Why it matters
Gems are one of the main ways people make Gemini work the way they want, and many have built up a collection of them. If skills stay behind a paywall, Google will have turned a free feature into a paid one. We’ll update this story when Google’s support page goes live.
Sources: 9to5Google, Android Authority, Google’s notice in the Gemini app, Gemini Apps Help: About the transition from Gems to skills, Google blog.
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