Thesis: The Gems-to-Skills transition shifts Gemini custom instructions from named saved assistants toward reusable procedures that can be invoked or applied across chats. Mechanism: Skills are reusable instructions that can be called with / plus a name, may later use @, and can be selected automatically by Gemini when relevant; multiple Skills can be combined in one chat.
Why now: Google has published phased removal dates: November 2026 for personal accounts, March 2027 for Workspace business, enterprise and nonprofit accounts, and June 2027 for Workspace education accounts. Observed facts: Google says it will automatically recreate existing Gems as Skills. Its help page also says Skills work with some connected apps, including Workspace apps, but not yet with Canvas or Deep Research, among other built-in tools. This makes the transition an operational migration, not only a terminology change: availability across chats comes with feature-compatibility boundaries.
Implications: Users and teams should inventory Gems that rely on unsupported capabilities and verify converted Skills before relying on them in workflows. The move could make reusable instructions easier to invoke in varied conversations, while changing where chats using those instructions appear and how users discover them. Evidence boundary: Google's help page documents its intended timeline, conversion process and current stated capabilities; it does not establish that every Gem will convert without loss, or how reliably automatic selection will work in practice.
Watch condition: Track whether Google adds support for currently excluded features such as Deep Research and Canvas before each account cohort reaches its transition date. The source describes future dates and planned behavior, not observed completion of the migration.