Google Sets Dates for Skills Rollout as Gemini Gems Head Toward Retirement
Skills roll out in Workspace on Oct. 5, 2026, and in the Gemini app on Oct. 13, with Gems retired by mid-2027.
The rollout in both products is expected to be completed by mid-November. Gems will then be moved to the Settings panel of the Gemini app on November 17, 2026, where users can continue to create, edit and use them.
Gems face their first hard cutoff on March 1, 2027, for business and enterprise accounts. From that date, Gems can no longer be created, edited or used, and they will be removed from the Settings panel of the Gemini app. Flows in Workspace Studio that include the Ask a Gem step will stop working, and any remaining Gems in the Gemini app will be automatically migrated to draft skills.
A second cutoff follows on June 1, 2027, for education accounts, with the same restrictions. Gems will also be removed from Google Classroom and from third-party learning management systems supported by Gemini LTI.
Skills do not sync between the Gemini app and Workspace, so a user who wants the same Skill on both platforms must create it separately in each.
Google also said Skills will be available in the Gemini app to all Workspace customers and to personal Google accounts, which settles the question of whether the feature would reach users on free accounts. Until the final deadlines, Gems can still be created and used in the Gemini app, and existing Ask a Gem steps continue to work in Workspace Studio, though new Ask a Gem steps can no longer be added.
Gems are custom, personalized AI assistants built for specific tasks such as brainstorming or coding. Skills differ in that they can be stacked within a single prompt; a user could combine a weekly newsletter Skill with a brand guidelines Skill to produce on-brand communications.
Android Authority reported that Google began warning users about the change through a banner in the Gems manager of the Gemini app before publishing the timeline.