Feature
Google is retiring Gemini Gems, its custom-instruction assistants, and replacing them with Skills; Gems move to the Settings panel on 17 November 2026 and are then removed on a phased schedule — personal accounts in November 2026, Workspace business/enterprise no sooner than 1 March 2027, education no sooner than 1 June 2027.
departs 17 Nov 2026
Quick answers
- Is it true that Google is discontinuing Gemini Gems and replacing them with Skills — Gems move to Settings on 17 November 2026 and are removed for personal accounts in November?
- Yes. Google has officially announced it, effective 17 Nov 2026. If you built **Gemini Gems** — the saved, custom-instruction assistants in the Gemini app and the Workspace side panel — Google is replacing them with **Skills** and winding Gems down.
- When does it take effect?
- 17 Nov 2026. Verified against the vendor's own announcement.
- What should I use instead?
- Skills are the direct replacement and are built on the open, Markdown-native **SKILL.md** standard, so a skill is portable across the Gemini app and Workspace apps.
What this means for you
If you built **Gemini Gems** — the saved, custom-instruction assistants in the Gemini app and the Workspace side panel — Google is replacing them with **Skills** and winding Gems down. Per Google's [Workspace Updates post](https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2026/09/skills-gemini-app-workspace.html) (30 Sep 2026), Skills began rolling out in Workspace on **5 October 2026** and in the Gemini app on **13 October 2026**. On **17 November 2026**, Gems move out of the main interface into the **Settings panel** of the Gemini app — still usable for now — after which they are removed on a phased schedule. Google's [Gemini Apps Help Center](https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/18560919?hl=en) lists the removal timeline: **personal Google accounts in November 2026**, **Workspace business, enterprise and non-profit accounts no sooner than 1 March 2027**, and **Workspace education accounts no sooner than 1 June 2027**. Google says it will **automatically migrate remaining Gems to (draft) Skills**, so you should not lose the underlying instructions, but the Gems surface — creating, editing and invoking a named Gem — goes away. Anyone who scripts around Gems, links to a Gem, or uses the **"Ask a Gem" step in Workspace Studio** flows should plan the switch: Google notes those flows stop working once education-account removal lands.
Where to go
Skills are the direct replacement and are built on the open, Markdown-native **SKILL.md** standard, so a skill is portable across the Gemini app and Workspace apps. (1) After 17 November 2026 your Gems live in the Gemini app Settings panel; Google will auto-migrate any remaining Gems to draft Skills when Gems are removed, so no manual action is strictly required to keep the instructions. (2) To move sooner, recreate each Gem as a Skill in the Gemini app rather than waiting for the automatic transition. (3) If you use the **Ask a Gem** step in Workspace Studio, rebuild that flow against Skills before the education-account cutoff (no sooner than 1 June 2027), when those flows stop working. (4) Review Google's Help Center page for the per-account removal date that applies to you, since business/enterprise and education dates are "no sooner than" targets and may slip.
- Gemini Skills — the official replacement; recreate Gems as Skills, or let Google auto-migrate remaining Gems to draft Skills
- Skills use the open SKILL.md Markdown standard, so instructions authored elsewhere can be copied into the Gemini app and Workspace apps
Google is retiring Gemini Gems — the saved, reusable custom-instruction assistants in the Gemini app and the Workspace side panel — and replacing them with Skills. The change was announced in a Google Workspace Updates post on 30 September 2026, with the per-account removal schedule detailed in the Gemini Apps Help Center.
Skills are reusable, stackable custom instructions that Gemini can invoke automatically, built on the open, Markdown-native SKILL.md standard — which means a skill authored on another platform can be copied into the Gemini app and Workspace apps.
The timeline (from Google’s own post)
- 5 October 2026 — Skills begin rolling out in Workspace (completing by mid-November).
- 13 October 2026 — Skills begin rolling out in the Gemini app (completing by mid-November). This is a rollout date, not a Gems cutoff — some outlets reported it incorrectly as the day you can no longer create Gems.
- 17 November 2026 — Gems move to the Settings panel of the Gemini app. Users can still create, edit, and use them there.
- November 2026 — Gems are removed for personal Google accounts.
- No sooner than 1 March 2027 — Gems can no longer be created, edited, or used for Workspace business, enterprise, and non-profit accounts, and are removed from the Settings panel.
- No sooner than 1 June 2027 — same removal for Workspace education accounts; Gems also disappear from Google Classroom and third-party LMSs supported by Gemini LTI, and “Ask a Gem” steps in Workspace Studio flows stop working.
What this means for you
Google says existing Gems are automatically migrated to (draft) Skills when Gems go away, and supported knowledge files transition too — so the underlying instructions should survive. What goes away is the Gems surface itself: the ability to create, edit, and invoke a named Gem.
If you simply use Gems casually, the automatic migration should cover you. If you depend on Gems in a workflow — a shared Gem, a linked Gem, or the Ask a Gem step in Workspace Studio — recreate those as Skills before the removal date for your account type. Because the 2027 business and education dates are stated as “no sooner than,” check the Help Center for the date that applies to you rather than assuming the earliest one.
Entry changelog
- — last reviewed.
- — Entry created from two Google first-party sources: the Workspace Updates post "Introducing skills in the Gemini app and Workspace, plus what's next for Gems" (30 Sep 2026) and the Gemini Apps Help Center article "About the transition from Gems to skills" (support.google.com/gemini/answer/18560919). Dates quoted directly: Skills roll out 5 Oct (Workspace) / 13 Oct (Gemini app); Gems move to the Settings panel on 17 November 2026 and remain usable there; Gems removed for personal accounts in November 2026, Workspace business/enterprise no sooner than 1 March 2027, education no sooner than 1 June 2027. sunsetDate set to 17 November 2026 — the one day-precise November milestone Google states and the point at which the Gems surface is relocated and the consumer wind-down begins; the per-account removal dates are documented in the body. Note: several secondary outlets reported 13 October as a "can no longer create/edit Gems" cutoff — that is incorrect per Google's own post, where 13 October is only the Gemini-app Skills rollout date. detect left empty: Gems are an in-product Gemini feature with no artifact in a code repository, and the SKILL.md replacement must never be fingerprinted (it is what you migrate to, not what is going away).
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