Skills in Gemini: how to create your own and leave Gems behind

On September 30, 2026, Google officially announced the start of the transition from Gems to Skills in Gemini. The rollout began on October 5 for Workspace and October 13 for the Gemini app, with completion expected by mid-November. Starting November 17, any Gems still around will move into Settings, automatically migrated to the new format.

This isn't the first time we've seen this kind of evolution. Anthropic already made the same move with Claude, moving from standalone prompts to a more structured Skills system. It's a sign of where AI assistants are heading: from tools that respond to what you ask, to agents that carry their own repertoire of abilities and know when to use each one.

But what actually changes, in practice, between a Gem and a Skill? Here's how I'd sum it up:

The difference is that a GEM is just a stored prompt you use so you don't have to type it again, while a SKILL is more complete — you package context, rules and workflow into a reusable artifact that the agent carries instantly whenever it's needed, without anyone having to ask. You create a full capability the agent doesn't have, the skill lives inside it, becomes part of its repertoire, and can be triggered by you or by the agent itself whenever it decides it's needed.

A Skill isn't loose text that the agent reads and tries to follow. It's a structured module with metadata, activation conditions, pre-approved tools, execution rules and an output format. It's the difference between handing someone a driving manual who's never driven a vehicle, and installing a full autopilot inside the person.

You don't need to worry about anything technical — just ask Gemini to help you create a skill you want your agent to use. Let's go through the steps.

Before you start, the requirements

Google lists three conditions for creating skills today:

• Be 18 years old or older.
• Be signed in with a personal Google account (work or school accounts don't have the feature yet).
• Have Keep Activity turned on in Gemini settings.

Skills work in the Gemini mobile app, the Mac app, and on gemini.google.com. For now, they don't yet work alongside Canvas, Deep Research, guided learning, or the video and music creation tools.

Step-by-step to create your first Skill

1. Open Settings, then Skills. On gemini.google.com, click your profile, go to Settings, and select Skills.

2. Choose how you want to create it. Gemini offers a few entry points:

• Create with Gemini: you describe what you need in a conversation and Gemini builds the skill with you, asking questions when information is missing.
• Create manually: you fill in name, description and instructions directly in a template.
• Upload: if you already have a file or folder with instructions ready, you upload it directly.

You can also skip this menu entirely and just type into the chat something like "create a skill based on these instructions: [...]".

3. Write a clear description. This matters more than it seems. Gemini decides on its own when to apply a skill based on its name and description. If the description is vague, the skill won't trigger at the right moment.

4. Attach reference files. You can upload documents, PDFs and images for the skill to consult. This is where old meeting minutes, previously used presentations, or a tracking spreadsheet come in, for example.

5. Save and test. Once created, the skill can be called by typing / followed by its name in any conversation. Gemini can also trigger it on its own when it notices your request matches what the skill does.

Practical example: a Skill to generate a status report

Let's apply this to something practically every project manager has had to do by hand: putting together the week's status report.

The idea is simple. Instead of gathering notes, meeting minutes, slide excerpts and the plan-update spreadsheet every week to write the report from scratch, the skill already knows what to do with that material as soon as you hand it over.

In the "Create manually" step, or by talking to Gemini, use an instruction along these lines:

Create a skill called "Weekly Status Report". It should read the meeting notes, minutes and the plan-update spreadsheet I send, and generate a status report with these sections: what was delivered this week, what's at risk or delayed, decisions made, and next steps. Use direct language, no fluff, in short bullet-point format.

After it's created, every week you just type /weekly-status-report and attach that week's files (the status meeting minutes, the updated spreadsheet, a screenshot or PDF of the presentation used). The skill always applies the same structure, without you having to re-explain what you want.

How to make it run on its own every week

One important caveat here: the skill itself doesn't have a built-in "scheduler". It only runs when you (or Gemini itself, within a conversation) trigger it.

To truly automate it, the right feature is Gemini's scheduled actions. It's a separate feature from skills, letting you schedule a prompt to run at a recurring time, say every Monday at 9am, and it notifies you when the result is ready.

Today this scheduling feature is exclusive to people with a paid Gemini subscription (Google AI Pro or Ultra) or on a Workspace plan with AI enabled. So the path is: create the skill normally (that's free), then set up a scheduled action that calls that skill every week, if your plan has access to the feature. Without the subscription, the manual /weekly-status-report flow already gets the job done and stays quick.

Is it worth migrating now?

Gems aren't disappearing overnight. Google has already confirmed it will automatically migrate existing Gems to the skill format once the old feature is turned off for personal accounts. But whoever starts building their own skills now reaches the transition with processes already running, instead of discovering all of this by surprise.

If you deal with any task that repeats every week, whether it's a report, a meeting summary or an email triage, it's worth taking 10 minutes to turn it into a skill. It's the kind of small adjustment that saves real time by the end of the month.

Best, Leandro Vieira