Google's Gems, the saved custom assistants in Gemini, have a firm end date. Google's help page says that on November 17, 2026, Gems on personal accounts become read only and transition to skills, and on December 17 they are removed from Gemini Apps altogether.
The change applies first to people aged 18 or over on a personal Google Account. Android Police published a preparation guide on November 4, and the practical point in both places is the same: most Gems should move automatically, but some of the files attached to them will not.
The dates, by account type
Google's page lists three groups. Personal accounts go first, on the two November and December dates above. During the read-only month you can still see a Gem, but Google says you can't use or edit it, or create new ones. Users under 18 on personal accounts will transition at a later date that Google hasn't given.
Workspace business, enterprise and non-profit accounts follow in March 2027, and Workspace education accounts in June 2027. Android Police adds more detail on those: Gems move into the Settings panel on November 17 but keep working until at least March 1, 2027, and education users won't lose them before June 1, 2027. It also says those final dates aren't set in stone. It reports that the rollout of skills to Workspace apps such as Docs, Sheets, Slides and Studio has been delayed, with no new date.
Google also says Opal, its experiment for building mini apps, and Gems by Google Labs will go away at the same time in November.
What survives the move
Google says it will automatically recreate your Gems as skills, along with any supported files. The catch is in what "supported" means. Skills have a 100 MB total limit on files, and if a Gem is over that, Google says it removes the largest files first until it fits.
Some file types won't transfer at all. Google lists GitHub files, audio and video files, the legacy Office formats .doc, .xls and .ppt, and archive formats such as .zip, .tar, .7z and .rar. Files like those need to be downloaded from the Gem before December 17, because Google says Gems and their files will no longer be available after that.
Android Police expects simple, text-based Gems to move across easily and describes Gems with supporting files as the complicated case.
What skills do differently
A skill is a reusable set of custom instructions, and the mechanical difference from a Gem is where it runs. Google says you call one by typing / followed by its name in any chat, with @ to replace the slash soon. Gemini can also apply a skill automatically when it judges one relevant, and several can be stacked in a single chat. Google allows up to 100 active skills at a time.
Skills don't yet match Gems on everything. Google says most default tools available in Gems don't work with them, including Canvas, Deep Research, Guided Learning, and video and music creation. Google says sharing and adding files from Google Drive or Gemini Notebook are due "in the coming weeks". Android Police adds that skills don't sync between the Gemini app and Workspace apps, so a skill needed in both must be created in both.
What to do before November 17
If you rely on a Gem, Google's page describes the manual route: download its knowledge files, create a skill under Customize, then Skills, and paste in the name, description and instructions. Attached files go in a folder that matches the skill's name, in lowercase with hyphens. You then upload that folder with the skill's SKILL.md file using Replace skill.
Doing this now is optional, since Google will convert Gems anyway. The step that isn't optional, for anyone with large or older-format files, is the download before December 17.
Cole's take: The automatic migration handles the instructions, which are the easy part. The risk sits in the knowledge files, because the rule removes the largest ones first without asking which matter most. Check the file list on any Gem you depend on now, while it can still be opened.
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