Google is retiring the Gems format for custom Gemini assistants and converting existing creations into reusable skills. The migration begins November 17, 2026, and Google says users do not need to take action. Gems will continue working until then.
Introduced in 2024, Gems let people save instructions for recurring roles such as a coding partner, editor, learning coach or trip planner. Skills keep that work but change how it is invoked: users select one by typing a forward slash inside a task thread. The shift fits a broader move from separate task-specific assistants toward capabilities that one general agent can load when needed.
Automatic migration reduces the risk that users lose prompts they refined, but it does not guarantee an identical workflow or output. Shared Gems and integrations may behave differently once represented as skills. People who rely on a custom assistant should review the migrated version after November 17 and check that its instructions, permissions and sharing settings still match the original.