Google replaces Gemini Gems with skills: Workspace rollout from 5 October 2026, Gems stop working for business from 1 March 2027

Google replaces Gemini Gems with skills: Workspace rollout from 5 October 2026, Gems stop working for business from 1 March 2027

30 September 2026 — On 30 September 2026 Google announced that "skills", reusable sets of custom instructions, are coming to the Gemini app and to Gemini in Google Workspace. Gems, the custom Gemini assistants many organisations have built over the past two years, will be retired. The announcement, on Google’s own Workspace Updates blog, gives a dated timetable. Business, enterprise and education administrators should plan around it now.

The timetable

Google’s post lists these dates:

• 5 October 2026: skills begin rolling out in Workspace. Rapid Release domains get them from 5 to 12 October; Scheduled Release domains from 19 October, completing by mid-November.
• 13 October 2026: skills begin rolling out in the Gemini app, for Rapid and Scheduled Release domains alike, with completion expected by mid-November.
• 17 November 2026: Gems move to the Settings panel of the Gemini app. Users can still create, edit and use them.
• No sooner than 1 March 2027 (business and enterprise only): Gems can no longer be created, edited or used, and are removed from the Settings panel. Existing Gems are auto-migrated to draft skills in the Gemini app.
• No sooner than 1 June 2027 (education only): the same end for education customers. Gems are also removed from Classroom and supported learning management systems.

"No sooner than" marks these as the earliest dates. Google has not fixed the final day.

What changes for users

Google describes skills as instructions that "function inline in your unified chat threads", so a user can stack several at once in one conversation. A Gem was a separate assistant. Skills use what Google calls the "open, Markdown-native SKILL.md standard". Skills in Workspace and skills in the Gemini app do not sync with each other, so a skill needed in both places has to be created in both.

In Workspace, skills are available on Business Starter, Standard and Plus, Enterprise Starter, Standard and Plus, the Google AI Pro for Education add-on and the AI Expanded Access add-on. In the Gemini app they reach all Workspace customers and personal accounts.

Why it matters to buyers

Many teams built Gems for repeatable work: drafting in a house style, summarising tickets, answering from a shared document set. The automatic migration creates draft skills. Anything a team depends on should be tested as a skill well before March 2027, and not left to the conversion. Education customers who put Gems inside Classroom or an LMS lose that placement in June 2027.

What to do

• List the Gems your organisation relies on, and who owns each.
• Once skills reach your domain (from 5 October for Rapid Release), recreate the important ones as skills and compare the results.
• Update internal guides and training that refer to Gems before 17 November, when they move to Settings.
• Education admins: plan the Classroom and LMS change before 1 June 2027.

Sources

• Google Workspace Updates: Introducing skills in the Gemini app and Workspace, plus what’s next for Gems — 30 September 2026