Google has officially announced that it will gradually phase out the “Gems” feature on the Gemini platform in the future and replace it with a new “Skills” system. This change represents Google rethinking Gemini’s customization experience, hoping to let users integrate personalization into everyday conversations more naturally without relying on separate custom bots.
Google Gemini will discontinue the Gems system, converting your most-used prompts into skills.
Gems were originally a customization feature Google launched for Gemini, allowing users to create dedicated AI assistants with specific tasks and styles. By presetting instructions, preferences, and workflows, users could build a version of Gemini tailored to their personal needs for writing, research, coding, or other repetitive work. However, Google believed this design still had a barrier to entry, so it decided to launch the more intuitive Skills feature.
Starting today, Gemini users aged 18 and over will gradually gain access to Skills. The core idea behind this new feature is to let users save prompts and work instructions they frequently reuse, then simply call them up to run them without having to re-enter the full content each time. For people who often use AI for fixed workflows, this can not only save time but also maintain consistency in response quality.
For example, if a user is used to asking Gemini to write reports in a specific format, reply to emails in a fixed tone, or add multiple preference conditions when analyzing data, in the past they often had to repeatedly copy and paste the same prompt content. With Skills, these settings can all be saved as skills and quickly applied when needed, greatly improving efficiency and convenience.
Although Google will replace Gems with Skills, this does not mean the original features will disappear. On the contrary, Google is integrating the important capabilities of Gems and Gemini Notebook into the new system. The company said that in the coming weeks, Skills will add a sharing feature, allowing users to share the skills they have created with others. In addition, Skills will also support importing files from Google Drive and directly integrating note data from Gemini Notebook.
For many existing Gems users, these features are important tools for their daily work. Therefore, Google’s strategy is not to remove existing capabilities, but to unify and integrate them through a new architecture, delivering a more complete and consistent user experience. In other words, Skills is not merely a replacement for Gems, but an upgraded version of it.
Regarding the retirement timeline, Google has announced a clear plan. Support for Gems on personal Google accounts will continue through November 2026; support for Gems used by enterprise and business Workspace users, as well as nonprofit organizations, will end in March 2027; education Workspace accounts can use it through June 2027. To reduce switching costs, Google has also committed to automatically migrating existing content to Skills after Gems is discontinued, so users will not need to recreate all their settings.
Notably, Skills is not a paid-only feature. Google says that whether they are free or paid Gemini users, anyone at least 18 years old can use this feature in the Gemini chat interface. As for Google Workspace enterprise, business, and education accounts, it is expected to roll out gradually over the next few weeks.
Overall, Gems lets users create personalized Gemini assistants, while Skills further integrates these capabilities directly into the chat experience. Through simpler operation, improved integration, and cross-platform sharing, Google clearly aims to make Gemini a more flexible AI assistant platform that better fits daily work and life needs.
Source: KOCPC Chinese