Google announced a global rollout of Skills in Gemini chat on September 30, 2026, describing them as reusable instructions for recurring tasks. The company also set different schedules for ending Gems support across personal and Workspace accounts. Google's rollout calendar separately scheduled the Gemini app rollout to begin October 13, with completion expected by mid-November.
What Gemini Skills do and how to use them
A Skill saves instructions for a task you repeat, so you can call on them again without rewriting the full prompt. To invoke one, type / followed by its name in the prompt bar. Google says Skills can also run when a prompt matches them.
Google says users can create Skills from chats, attach plain-text documents, PDFs, and images as reference files, and combine multiple Skills in one task. For example, writing-style instructions can be paired with brand guidelines.
Google's announced schedule for Gems
Google plans to phase out Gems on different timelines, depending on the account category:
| Account category | Announced Gems support transition |
| Personal accounts | Support removal begins in November 2026 |
| Workspace business, enterprise, and nonprofit customers | March 2027 |
| Workspace education customers | June 2027 |
Google says remaining Gems will be migrated to Skills. In Workspace, those migrated Skills will start as inactive drafts and need review and activation before use.
Workspace Skills have a separate rollout
Google scheduled the Workspace Skills rollout to begin October 5, 2026, for Rapid Release domains, with completion expected by October 12. For Scheduled Release domains, the planned start is October 19, with completion expected by mid-November.
