The news that Google is reinventing Gemini’s Gemsfelt a bit jarring. I’ve spent years crafting a collection of Gems for my needs, so it’s hard to escape the feeling that Google is pulling the rug out from under my carefully crafted workflow.
Thankfully, it’s not as bad as it sounds. Google has told us what to expect and given us some time to settle in.
Still, the clock is ticking. The first stage hits on November 17, 2026, so it’s a good idea to get ready now.
Google has promised to automatically migrate existing Gems, but while relatively simple ones should survive the move, it’s best to get ahead of the game.
When is this all happening?
The timeline varies depending on your plan
Personal Google accounts for users 18 and older will go first, followed by Google Workspace accounts next year.
Here are key dates for those 18 and over with a personal Google account:
- November 17, 2026: Gems transition to skills. The original Gems will still be accessible for reference, but you won’t be able to use, edit, or create new ones.
- December 17, 2026: Gems will be removed and will vanish entirely from your account.
There’s less of a rush if you’re under 18, as Google hasn’t announced when this transition will be coming for those users.
Google Workspace users also have more time. Nothing goes away until next year, and the final dates aren’t set in stone yet.
For those folks, Gems will move into the Settings panel on November 17, but continue working until at least March 1, 2027. Education users won’t see their Gems removed before June 1, 2027.
Google has also delayed the rollout of skills to Workspace apps like Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Studio, with no word yet on when it’s coming.
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Gems vs. skills
This move is ultimately a good thing
Credit: Lucas Gouveia / Android Police | Prostock-studio / Shutterstock
Gems are handy, but you have to visit them directly. It’s easy to open a standard Gemini chat instead of the Gem I want, or start a standard chat only to later realize I’d like to apply a Gem.
Skills will solve these problems. A skill can be called up anywhere — even in the middle of an ongoing chat. For now, that’s done by typing a slash (/) and the name of the skill, although Google plans to transition that to an at sign (@).
You may not even need to call one up explicitly. Skills can be triggered automatically based on a When to use section in the instructions.
Skills can also be stacked, so I can call up an editorial assistant and a research skill in the same chat to tie proofreading and writing styles in with additional context.
Google is also expanding its horizons, as skills are built on the open SKILL.md standard, so they’ll be transferable with other AI platforms like Claude and ChatGPT.
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Skills are a work in progress
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows
Credit: Lucas Gouveia / Android Police
Skills are an improvement over Gems, but there will be some transitional and growing pains. Here are some things to keep in mind:
- Skills don’t start from a specific tab, so there’s no easy way to see where they were used. You can search for them if they have a unique name, but this can be hit-and-miss.
- Many Gemini tools don’t work with skills, including Canvas, Deep Research, Guided Learning, video creation, and music creation.
- You can’t add content from Google Drive and Gemini Notebook.
- You can’t currently share skills with other users.
- There’s no limit to how many skills you can create, but only 100 can be active at one time.
- There’s a 100MB limit on files you can add to a skill.
- Skills won’t sync between the Gemini app and Workspace apps. If you need a skill in both places, you’ll have to create it in both.
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How to prepare for the transition
Proactively audit and recreate your Gems now
Simple, text-based Gems should easily transition to skills, and you can get a head start by doing it yourself.
To create a skill, either type “create a skill” in a new prompt window or go to Customize > Skills > Create > Create with Gemini to describe your skill through prompts, or choose Create manually from that same menu and paste the content of your Gem there.
If your Gem has supporting files, things are more complicated:
- The 100MB file size limit is a blunt instrument; Google will delete the largest files to get below the limit.
- Unsupported files are also dropped, including legacy Microsoft Office formats (.doc, .xls, .ppt), compressed archives, GitHub files, and audio and video files.
- Google will delete these files on December 17, so download them before then.
If you’re transitioning your Gems proactively, you’ll be doing that anyway. Here’s how to recreate your priority Gems as skills:
- Click Gems in the Gemini sidebar.
- Click the Edit (pencil) button beside your Gem.
- Download each file under the Knowledge heading.
- Create a folder with the name of your skill and put your downloaded files there. The folder name must be all lowercase with hyphens separating each word.
- Open a new Gemini tab and go to Customize > Skills > Create > Create manually.
- Copy and paste the name, description, and instructions from the Gem into your new skill, ensuring the name matches the folder you created in step 4.
- Click Create.
- From the list of skills, click the three-dot menu beside your new skill and choose Download.
- Extract the downloaded zip file and copy the SKILL.md file into the folder you created in step 4.
- Return to the skills page, click the three-dot menu again, and choose Replace skill.
- Click folder, select the folder containing your knowledge files and the SKILL.md file, and upload it.
You’ll also find an Add files button when editing a skill manually. This works for adding a few files at a time, but not for larger bulk uploads.
Some of Google’s tectonic shifts are for the better
I’ve used Google apps for long enough to remember some of the company’s oldest tombstones. I still miss Google Reader and Inbox by Google, so when I heard Gems were going away, I was afraid another great feature was going into the boneyard.
Thankfully, that’s not the case. I migrated some of my key Gems to skills over the past two weeks, and it’s been working great.
This change feels like a breath of fresh air, like walking out of a set of dusty old rooms into Gemini’s more spacious main living area. Skills still have some room to grow, but as long as Google keeps working on them, I think the future is bright.