Gemini skills are replacing Gems: what changes, the November deadline and how to move your Gems

Google announced on September 30, 2026 that skills are rolling out in Gemini chat worldwide and will replace Gems, Gemini’s custom-instruction chatbots. If you have Gems you rely on, there is a deadline: Google will remove them starting in November 2026 for personal accounts. This report explains what skills are, the retirement dates, what works now and what doesn’t yet, and how to move your Gems, using Google’s announcement and Gemini Apps Help pages.

What skills are

Google describes skills as reusable custom instructions. You save the instructions you use most once, then run them again without re-typing the prompt. According to Google’s blog post:

• Quick access. Type a forward slash and the skill’s name in the prompt bar. Google says the / will later become @.
• Automatic use. Gemini recognises when a skill is relevant to your prompt and applies it.
• Stackable. Combine several skills at once, for example a writing-style skill with a brand-guidelines skill to produce on-brand assets in your voice.
• Built with help. Gemini can help you create skills from your chats.
• Reference files. From today you can add files such as plain text documents, PDFs and images to a skill.

Google’s examples include preparing for presentations, matching your writing style across Workspace apps, and asking Gemini to always give three to five distinct viewpoints on a topic. Its help page adds tutoring help that declines to give homework answers, turning bank statements into formatted spreadsheets, and career advice based on your résumé.

The retirement dates

Google says Opal, its experiment for building mini apps, will also turn down in November 2026. To make the switch seamless, it says it will automatically migrate your Gems into skills when they go away.

What works today, and what’s coming

Skills are live in Gemini chat for people aged 18 or over signed in to a personal Google Account and with Keep Activity on. Google says Workspace business, enterprise, nonprofit and education customers get them in the coming weeks. For now they work in the Gemini mobile app, the Gemini app on Mac and on gemini.google.com.

Gems still do a few things skills can’t yet. Google says that in the coming weeks skills will gain sharing with others, adding files from Google Drive and adding notebooks from Gemini Notebook, and that it plans to bring more of Gems’ functionality before removing them. If you use those features, check that skills have them before the deadline for your account type.

How to create a skill

Based on Google’s help page:

1. Open gemini.google.com (or the Gemini app on Mac) and go to Settings, then Skills.
2. Choose how to start: work with Gemini to create one, edit a prefilled template, use a blank template, or upload a skill file or a folder containing a SKILL.md file and optional reference files. You can also ask Gemini to create a skill from a chat.
3. Reference other skills inside your instructions to build larger workflows.
4. To use it, type / in a chat or task and select the skill, or let Gemini apply it automatically. You can switch automatic use off for any skill from the Skills page.

You can edit, delete or download a skill from the Skills page. Google notes an issue preventing skills with uploaded files from being edited in the mobile and Mac apps, so use the web app for those for now.

How to recreate a Gem as a skill early

You don’t have to wait for the automatic migration. Google’s three steps are to open the Gem and download any knowledge files, create a new skill and copy over the Gem’s details, then download the skill and upload it again with your files attached. Since Gems will be recreated automatically anyway, this matters mostly if you want to test the result or restructure the instructions first.

Skills and Gemini Spark

Skills aren’t only for chat. They are also a building block of Gemini Spark, Google’s personal agent, where a task can use a skill and run it on a schedule. Google’s blog says skills are already available in Spark. Our guide explains how tasks, schedules and skills fit together.

What it means for you

If you only use Gems occasionally, the migration should be invisible. If you use them heavily, especially for sharing a setup with colleagues or pulling in Drive files, keep an eye on the “coming weeks” features and your own account’s date. The idea isn’t unique to Google: Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s ChatGPT both have their own reusable skills and plugins, as covered in what is Claude Cowork and ChatGPT plugins in the DevDay recap. To turn Gemini features off instead, see how to turn off Gemini, and for plan limits, see Google AI Plus vs Pro vs Ultra. The assistant overall is on the Gemini profile.