On 27 September a new notice appeared in Gemini's Gems manager: from 17 November 2026 Google starts moving every Gem into a new format called skills. The move is automatic. According to the notice, Gems keep working until they are migrated, and after that they carry on in the form of skills.
A Gem is a standing assistant you set up once inside Gemini: you write its instructions, attach files, and it remembers them in every conversation. Google launched Gems in 2024, free for anyone using Gemini, including sharing by link. Small businesses used them to build an assistant that drafts quotes in a fixed style, one that answers customers from an attached price list, or one that writes posts in the brand's voice.
How daily use changes
You pick a Gem from a list at the side of the screen, and the whole conversation runs through it. A skill is called from inside the conversation: type a slash (/) in the prompt box and choose from the list. Several skills can run in the same conversation, and Gemini can also apply a skill on its own when it judges one fits the request. Someone who kept three separate Gems, one for quotes and one for posts, can combine them in a single chat.
Who can create a skill
This is the gap. Creating a new skill is open today only to Google AI Pro subscribers, at $20 a month, and to AI Ultra. It also needs a personal Google account rather than a work or school one, age 18 or over, and Gemini activity history switched on. Skills are unavailable in the European Economic Area, the UK, Switzerland and Nigeria. Israel is not on the excluded list.
Google has not said whether that restriction stays after 17 November. Migrated Gems will keep running, but it is unclear whether a free user will be able to build a new skill or edit the one created from their Gem. The help page the notice links to was empty at the time of reporting.
Google Workspace business accounts are not mentioned in the notice either, and nothing says when or how the migration reaches them.
Before 17 November
The reports disagree on whether attached files, default tools and share links move over with a Gem. Google's own notice does not say. So back up now, while it is still easy.
Open each Gem the business relies on, copy its instruction text into a separate document, and note which files are attached. A price list, terms of service or sample quotes should also live somewhere outside Gemini. If you shared a Gem with an employee or a partner by link, check after the migration that the link still opens what it should.
After 17 November, run each migrated skill on a request whose answer you already know, such as a quote for an existing client, and compare it with what the Gem produced. If a file is missing, attach it again from the backup.
Free-plan users who run their daily work on Gems should hold off on building new ones. Until Google says what a free user may do, a new assistant could end up locked for editing after the migration.