Google is rolling out skills in Gemini, which let users save frequently used instructions and reuse them for repetitive tasks. Skills will replace Gems as the tool for creating tailored instructions in Gemini.
Gemini skills
Once users create a skill, they can run it again by typing a forward slash (/) followed by the skill name directly in the prompt bar. Gemini can also help users build custom skills from their chats and automatically run them when users enter a matching prompt.
Google highlights several ways users can use skills. These include preparing presentations, matching a user’s writing style, and getting multiple perspectives on a topic.
- Presentations: Users can create a skill to outline slides, prepare talking points, and prepare for questions for a class presentation or project pitch.
- Writing style: Gemini can use a user’s writing style across Google Workspace apps when drafting content.
- Multiple perspectives: Users can configure Gemini to provide three to five distinct viewpoints on a topic for brainstorming, refining arguments, or making decisions.
For larger tasks, users can stack multiple skills together. For example, a writing-style skill can be combined with a brand-guidelines skill to create content that follows both sets of instructions. Users can also create skills with reference files, including plain text documents, PDFs, and images.
Transition from Gems
Google is bringing more features from Gems to skills in the coming weeks. These include the ability to share skills with others and add files from Google Drive and notebooks from Gemini Notebook.
Google will remove support for Gems according to the following timeline:
- Personal accounts: November 2026
- Workspace business, enterprise, and nonprofit customers: March 2027
- Workspace education customers: June 2027
Google says it will automatically migrate users’ Gems into skills when Gems are discontinued. Users can also refer to Google’s help center for information about transitioning their existing Gems to skills.
Separately, Opal, the Google Labs experiment for building mini apps, will also be discontinued in November 2026. Opal creations will not migrate into skills.
Availability
Google is rolling out skills across its Gemini products and Workspace services:
- Gemini Spark: Skills are already available.
- Gemini chat: Skills are rolling out globally.
- Google AI subscription tiers: Available across all subscription tiers.
- Age: Currently available to users aged 18 and above, with support for users under 18 coming soon.
- Google Workspace: Skills will reach business, enterprise, nonprofit, and education customers in the coming weeks.