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| The notice in the Gemini Gem manager: Gems will start migrating to skills on November 17, 2026. |
If you’ve built a collection of custom Gems in Gemini, Google is about to change the name—and the workflow—underneath them. The custom assistants, which let users save instructions since August 2024, are being rebranded as “skills.” A banner now appears above the Gem manager, including in the German interface, warning that Google will begin migrating Gems to skills automatically on November 17, 2026. Until the switch happens, Google says existing Gems will continue to work.
The timing depends on your account type. According to Google’s help page, November 17 applies to personal accounts. Workspace business, enterprise, and non-profit accounts are set to follow in March 2027, while education accounts are scheduled for June 2027. That means some users could be waiting months longer than others.
What happens during the migration?
For most people, the process should be hands-off. Google says it will “automatically transition your Gems, along with any supported files, to skills.” That includes custom, premade, and shared Gems. The help page doesn’t list which file types are unsupported, but for Gems with knowledge files, Google recommends downloading them first. If you don’t want to wait for the automatic migration, you can manually recreate your Gems as skills now.
The way you launch them will change too. Instead of opening a Gem from the sidebar, you’ll type a slash in the chat and select a skill. According to 9to5Google, you can combine multiple skills at once, which could be useful for more complicated tasks.
Keep Activity is now a requirement
Google’s skills help page lists two conditions: skills are only available to users over 18 with a personal Google account, and Keep Activity must be turned on. For Gems, Google had only required that setting when you added files from Google Drive. If you disabled Keep Activity for privacy reasons, check before November 17 whether you’ll be able to use your converted skills. With the setting enabled, chats are stored in your account, and Google reviewers may read some of them and keep them for up to three years.
No skills in Germany yet
It’s unclear whether skills will be ready in Europe by the migration deadline. In a quick test with a free account in Germany on September 29, the “Create skills” button in the Gem manager did nothing, and typing a slash in the chat opened no menu. Android Authority and 9to5Google report that skills are currently limited to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers. Google has not yet told Android Authority whether free accounts, which have had access to Gems, will get skills too. Google has already kept its Spark agent out of Europe, and the Gemini app for Windows launched without it.
What Gemini users should do now
If you depend on Gems, there’s no need to panic yet. They should keep working until the migration reaches your account. But it’s smart to prepare. Download any knowledge files attached to your Gems, think about whether you want to recreate them as skills manually, and check your Keep Activity setting. If you’re in Europe or using a free account, watch for more details from Google, because availability may lag behind the US rollout.
For now, the shift from Gems to skills is more than a name change. It’s a new way to organize and launch Gemini assistants—and for some users, it could come with new requirements before they can use them.