Editorial illustration for Google Ditches Gems, Adopts Anthropic's Open-Source Skills Format
Google Replaces Gems with Anthropic's Skills Format
Gemini users typing "/" into the chat box will now pull up something called Skills instead of Gems. Google confirmed the global rollout this week, closing the book on Gems, its answer to OpenAI's Custom GPTs, which launched to compete in the same crowded space of saved, reusable AI prompts. The timing isn't a coincidence. OpenAI is sunsetting Custom GPTs too, and both companies are landing on a format that started at Anthropic and now exists as an open standard rather than a proprietary feature locked to one chatbot.
The mechanics are straightforward: users write or refine a detailed prompt for a recurring task, save it as a Skill, and call it up later with a slash command. Gemini can also mine old conversations to generate Skills on its own, then fire them automatically when it spots a matching request. Google says users will be able to chain several Skills together, pairing a writing-style Skill with a brand-guidelines Skill for more layered outputs. Support for PDFs, images, and text documents as reference material is already live, with Drive integration and sharing due in the coming weeks.
Gems isn't disappearing overnight everywhere. Personal accounts lose access this November, but enterprise and nonprofit Workspace customers get until March 2027, and education customers until June 2027. Existing Gems convert to Skills automatically.
Why this matters
Three labs converging on the same prompt format in the space of a year tells us the chat-app era of AI customization is over. Gems and Custom GPTs were walled gardens: build a persona, lock it inside one company's product, start over if you switch tools. Skills, as an open standard born at Anthropic and now adopted by Google and OpenAI, point toward something more like a portable config file for AI behavior, one that works across models instead of being tied to a vendor's UI.
For developers and founders building on top of these platforms, that's worth watching closely: if Skills become the common interchange format, the differentiation shifts away from "who has the better custom-bot builder" and toward execution, speed, and reliability of the underlying agent. For researchers, the auto-generation piece (Gemini writing Skills from past chats and firing them automatically) is the more interesting signal. It's a small step toward agents that infer their own tooling rather than waiting for a human to write the prompt.
Worth tracking whether that auto-trigger behavior stays predictable at scale, or starts guessing wrong in ways users don't notice until it matters.
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Common Questions Answered
What is replacing Google's Gems feature in Gemini chat?
Google is replacing Gems with Skills, which are detailed prompts for specific tasks that the AI can help write and refine. Skills represent a shift away from proprietary custom prompt formats toward an open standard that was originally developed by Anthropic.
Why are both Google and OpenAI discontinuing their custom prompt features?
Both companies are sunsetting Gems and Custom GPTs because they recognize that the chat-app era of AI customization with walled gardens is ending. They are converging on Skills, an open-source format that allows prompts to work across different models rather than being locked to a single vendor's product.
How does the Skills format differ from Gems and Custom GPTs?
Unlike Gems and Custom GPTs which were proprietary features locked within specific platforms, Skills function as a portable config file for AI behavior that works across multiple models and companies. This open standard approach eliminates the need to rebuild custom prompts when switching between different AI tools.
What does the adoption of Skills by Google and OpenAI indicate about the future of AI customization?
The convergence of three major AI labs on the same prompt format within a year signals that the era of vendor-specific AI customization is over. Skills as an open standard point toward a future where AI behavior configurations are portable and interoperable across different models rather than tied to individual company platforms.
Further Reading
- Google is killing off Gemini's Gems in favor of 'skills' - TechCrunch
- Google drops Gems for Skills, joining OpenAI and Anthropic in the shift to agent-ready prompt formats - The Decoder
- Google replaces Gemini Gems with Skills: What happens to your saved data? - Financial Express
- RIP, Gemini Gems. - The Verge
- Google details Gems to skills migration, including free access - 9to5Google
