Google is shutting down Gemini Gems, its customisable AI assistants, and will begin moving existing Gems over to a newer feature called Skills from November 17.
The change was spotted through a banner in Gemini’s Gems manager, confirming months of reports that Google was planning to replace Gems with Skills. Until their migration, users will still be able to use their existing Gems, and Google says they will remain available in Skill form once the process is complete.
That should mean users won’t have to rebuild all the custom instructions and work they’ve already put into their Gems. Google hasn’t said exactly how long the migration will take, though, so it’s unclear whether every Gem will move immediately on November 17 or whether the process will happen over a longer period.
There is one fairly important catch. Gems are currently available to free Gemini users, while Skills are only available to subscribers with Google AI Pro or Ultra and access to Gemini Spark. That leaves an obvious question about what happens to free users once their Gems are migrated.
Google hasn’t cleared that up yet. The announcement’s “Learn More” button currently points to a Google Support page that doesn’t exist, so there are no further details on whether free users will eventually be able to access Skills or whether a subscription will be required.
That makes the November 17 change particularly important for anyone who has built up a collection of Gems.
Google has been moving more of Gemini’s customization features towards Skills, and this latest announcement makes the end of Gems official rather than just something uncovered in app code.
For now, if you’ve spent time creating Gems in Gemini, there’s no need to start rebuilding them. Google says they’ll be migrated to Skills from November 17, but what happens to users who don’t have a Google AI subscription remains the big unanswered question.
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