Google has introduced Skills in the Gemini chat. Save the instructions you use most once, then call them up by typing "/" in the prompt box. Gems required switching to a dedicated screen, while Skills work right inside an ongoing conversation. Gems will be replaced by Skills in stages, and existing Gems will be migrated automatically.

Saved instructions you can call mid-conversation

Skills let you save instructions for a specific task and reuse them as many times as you like. Type "/" followed by the skill name to run one, and Gemini may also apply a matching skill on its own.

You can use several skills at once. For example, you could combine a skill that captures your writing style with one that holds your company's brand guidelines and apply both to a single request. Reference files such as text, PDFs, and images can be attached to a skill.

Three ways to create a skill

There are three main ways to build a skill.

The first is to create one in conversation with Gemini, which helps turn the content of past chats into a skill. The second is to enter a description and custom instructions yourself. The third is to import a skill from another service as a SKILL.md file, which is reported to be available on the web and Mac versions.

Templates are also provided in five areas: writing style, energy management, diverse perspectives, idea generation, and meeting preparation.

What happens to Gems

Gems will be replaced by Skills, with the end date depending on the account type.

  • Personal Google accounts: November 2026
  • Google Workspace (business, enterprise, nonprofit): March 2027
  • Google Workspace (education): June 2027

Existing Gems will be converted to Skills automatically at those times, and supported reference files carry over. You can also recreate them yourself and move over earlier.

Separately, Google Labs' mini-app builder Opal and the Gems provided by Labs will also end in November 2026. These have no automatic migration to Skills, so workflows must be rebuilt by hand.

Features that don't carry over, and availability

For now, some Gems features are unavailable in Skills: Canvas, Deep Research, video creation, music creation, and guided learning. GitHub files are not supported either. Sharing, and adding files from Google Drive and Gemini Notebook, are planned for later updates.

Skills are available first to users aged 18 or older with a personal Google account, with work and school accounts expected to follow. Skills are already usable in the agent feature Gemini Spark.

Summary

Skills remove the need to switch to a dedicated screen as with Gems, and fit repeated tasks into everyday chat. For heavy Gems users, the loss of features such as Canvas is the thing to check before migrating. Because Gems end for personal accounts in November 2026, it is worth reviewing what your existing Gems contain.