Gemini launches skills: save frequent instructions once and call them with “/”, replacing Gems, which end for personal accounts in November 2026
Google is rolling out skills in Gemini chat globally: users save frequently used instructions once, then call them by typing “/” and the name, and Gemini can also apply them automatically when relevant; skills will replace Gems, which end for personal accounts in November 2026 and will be converted to skills automatically.
Google says skills are rolling out in Gemini chat globally starting today, after first appearing in Gemini Spark; Google Workspace business, enterprise, nonprofit and education customers will get them in the coming weeks. The help center says they are currently available to people over 18 signed in with a personal Google Account, with work and school accounts to follow.
A skill is a reusable set of custom instructions. Once created, it can be called by typing “/” and the skill’s name in the prompt bar, which the help center says will soon change to “@”, and Gemini can also apply it automatically when it recognizes a relevant prompt. Several skills can be stacked, such as combining a writing style with brand guidelines. Gemini can help build skills from your chats, and skills can include reference files such as plain text documents, PDFs or images.
The help center lists current limits: skills work with connected apps such as Workspace apps but not yet with Canvas or Deep Research, most default tools available in Gems do not work with skills yet, and GitHub files are not supported. Google says that in the coming weeks skills will gain Gems features such as sharing and adding files from Google Drive and notebooks from Gemini Notebook.
Gems will be removed in stages: November 2026 for personal accounts, March 2027 for Workspace business, enterprise and nonprofit accounts, and June 2027 for Workspace education accounts. Gems and their supported files will then be converted to skills automatically, or they can be recreated manually earlier. Opal, the experiment for building mini apps, and “Gems made by Labs” will also shut down, on November 17, 2026 according to Opal’s developer FAQ. Existing Opal workflows will not migrate automatically and must be rebuilt as skills or prompts by hand; workflow files stored in the “Opal” folder in Google Drive will not be deleted.
Sources
- Let skills in Gemini tackle your most repetitive tasks — Google Gemini
- Frequently asked questions and best practices — developers.google.com
- About the transition from Gems to skills — support.google.com