Gemini's new skills are replacing Gems. Here's what changes and when

On September 30, 2026, Google began rolling out skills in Gemini. A skill is a saved set of instructions that Gemini can reuse. You can build one from a chat, run it by typing "/" in the prompt bar, or let Gemini apply it on its own when a request matches. Skills also replace Gems, Gemini's existing custom assistants. Personal accounts lose Gems in November 2026, and existing Gems will be converted automatically.

The launch got less attention than Gemini 4 Argon, the frontier model Google announced the same day. For people who use the Gemini app every day, though, it is the bigger change: it affects how they tailor the app, and it ends a feature many rely on.

What skills do

Google's announcement and help pages describe skills like this:

• Built from chats or written by hand. You can ask Gemini to "create a skill based on these instructions," build one through a guided chat, start from a template, or write one manually in Settings > Skills.
• Run on demand or automatically. Type "/" and pick a skill, or let Gemini use any active skill when it fits the request.
• Combined. Several skills can apply to one task, such as a writing-style skill plus a brand-guidelines skill. Skills can also reference other skills.
• Reference files. A skill can carry plain-text files, PDFs and images. Word and Excel files (.docx, .xlsx) aren't supported. The total upload per skill is capped at 100 MB.
• Portable format. You can upload a skill as a SKILL.md file, or as a folder or .zip containing one, and download it again as a .zip. Skill names must be lowercase with hyphens, such as weekly-report.

Google's examples include building slide outlines and Q&A prep, drafting in your own writing style, and asking for three to five viewpoints on a topic.

Skills are also one of the three building blocks of Gemini Spark, Google's tool for multi-step and scheduled tasks; the other two are tasks and schedules. Spark requires a Google AI subscription, but skills do not. Google's help page says: "Skills are available without a Google AI subscription." If you cancel a subscription, you lose access to Spark, tasks and schedules. Google says schedules are paused rather than deleted, and your skills remain.

Who gets it, and when

The help center lists the current requirements:

• You must be 18 or over.
• You must use a personal Google Account. Work and school accounts are excluded "for now."
• Keep Activity must be turned on. For what Gemini keeps and how it's used, see the privacy notes in ChatGPT vs Gemini for research before you turn it on.
• Skills work on the web, in the Android and iOS apps, and in the Mac app.

The rollout is gradual. Google's announcement calls it global. Google's Workspace admin page gives a more precise schedule: skills reach all Gemini app users starting October 13, 2026, finishing by mid-November. Workspace users get skills in Workspace apps from October 5 (Rapid Release domains) or October 19 (Scheduled Release domains). Workspace admins have to switch the feature on.

Last verified: October 8, 2026

What happens to your Gems

Sources: Google's blog, the Gemini help center and the Workspace admin help page. Last verified: October 8, 2026

Google says Gems will be converted automatically. Per the Workspace admin documentation, each Gem becomes an inactive draft skill that you must review and activate. Converted skills keep their names, instructions and knowledge files, and Drive sharing permissions carry over. Gems used inside Workspace apps, such as "Ask a Gem" steps in Workspace Studio flows, are not converted and must be rebuilt by hand. Google says it will publish full migration details at least 30 days before automatic conversion starts.

Two Google Labs experiments also shut down in November: Opal, a tool for building mini apps, and Gems by Google Labs. Google says the Labs Gems will not be converted.

The gaps

Skills launch with real limitations, all listed in Google's own help pages:

• They don't work everywhere yet. Skills can't be used with Canvas, Deep Research, video or music creation, or Guided Learning. If you rely on a Gem to steer Deep Research reports, you lose that until Google adds support.
• Sharing isn't available yet. Google says sharing, adding files from Google Drive and attaching Gemini Notebook notebooks (the product formerly called NotebookLM) arrive "in the coming weeks." For now, anyone who shares Gems with a team has nothing equivalent.
• The mobile apps lag behind. Skills you create manually won't save in the mobile app. Skills with attached files can't be edited in the mobile or Mac apps; use the web.
• No sync with Workspace apps. A skill made in the Gemini app doesn't appear in Workspace apps, and the reverse is also true.
• No GitHub files. GitHub files can't be attached to skills yet.

Last verified: October 9, 2026 (Gemini Apps Help: sharing is still listed as coming "in the coming weeks")

Some outlets have described skills as paywalled. Google's help center says they are available without a subscription; only Spark's tasks and schedules need one.

Why it matters

Gems were a simple way to give Gemini a standing persona or set of instructions. Skills are closer to how AI agents are now customized across the industry: a file-based package (SKILL.md plus reference files) that the model chooses to load when it's relevant. Gemini then decides when a skill applies instead of waiting for you to open a specific Gem. That is more flexible, but it is also less predictable. If two skills overlap, it is not always obvious which one Gemini will use.

What to do now:

1. List the Gems you actually use.
2. For any Gem with knowledge files, download those files now. Google's help page says they have to be downloaded one at a time. If you want to switch before the automatic conversion, Google says you can recreate a Gem as a skill by hand.
3. After the conversion, activate each draft skill and test it. Drafts stay inactive until you do.
4. Workspace admins: replace "Ask a Gem" steps in Workspace Studio flows before the 2027 cut-offs.

If you use Gemini mainly for long documents, skills can carry PDFs as reference files, within the 100 MB per-skill limit. Our explainer on how Gemini handles very large PDFs covers the separate limits for chat uploads and Gemini Notebook.