Google is replacing Gemini Gems with skills: same helpful assistant, new job title

Google announced on 30 September that reusable 'skills' will replace Gems across Gemini and Workspace. Skills start rolling out on 5 October, and Gems stop working from 1 March 2027 at the earliest.

If you spent an afternoon building the perfect Gem, don't panic, but do put a note in the diary. Google announced on 30 September that it's replacing Gems in Gemini with something called skills. A skill is a saved set of instructions, like your brand voice for blog posts or the way you lay out a proposal, that you can call up in the Gemini app and most Workspace apps. The difference is that skills work inside your normal chat, and you can stack several in one prompt instead of opening a separate Gem for each job.

For Business and Enterprise customers, skills start rolling out in Workspace on 5 October for Rapid Release domains and 19 October for Scheduled Release domains. The Gemini app follows from 13 October, and everything should be finished by mid-November. On 17 November Gems move into the Settings panel, where you can still create and edit them. From 1 March 2027 or later they stop working, and Google will convert them to draft skills automatically. Skills are written in the open SKILL.md format, so in theory your instructions can travel to other tools instead of living in Google's cupboard forever.

For a midsize business, stacking is the useful bit. Gems were like single-purpose kitchen gadgets: the avocado slicer, the egg separator. Skills are closer to a decent set of knives. Your sales team could combine a house style skill with a proposal structure skill and get a draft that sounds like you and follows your format, without anyone copying instructions between tabs. Admins can switch skills on or off in the Workspace admin console.

My advice: don't wait for March. List the Gems your team actually uses, who owns each one and what it's for. Some will be worth rebuilding properly as skills, and some you'll find haven't been opened since someone got excited at a lunch-and-learn. Google's automatic conversion creates draft skills, so someone should still read and test each one before the team relies on it.

Skills are a sensible upgrade, and the timeline is generous. Use it to tidy up rather than panic. The best time to clean out the gadget drawer is before you move house.