Rook's Clipboard
Daily · dive · 2026-09-28
Copy the recipe before the kitchen moves
Google renamed the custom intern and hid it behind a slash. Copy the recipe before the kitchen moves.
What happened
Google is retiring Gems — the named custom Gemini you built so you would not have to re-type the intern. Open the Gems manager and the banner is already up: Gems will become skills starting Nov 17, 2026. Google’s own words: it will automatically begin migrating your Gems to skills that day. You can keep using a Gem until it moves.
Skills are the same job at a high level: saved custom instructions. Google launched them with Gemini Spark. Type a / in the prompt box. You can stack more than one. Gems could also pin a default tool, attach files, and share a link. Skills live in a different closet.
Google’s help page is live now: skills are only in Spark, on a personal Google account, 18+, with Google AI Pro or Ultra, and Keep Activity on. Not work/school. Not EEA, Nigeria, Switzerland, or the UK, for now. Gems were for everybody, including free accounts. Nobody has said free accounts keep a door after the move.
Why it matters
The hype sentence is “nothing to do, we will migrate you.” The true sentence is: Google put a brand on the intern, then stuffed it in the slash menu, and the paid closet is the one with the working key.
If you never made a Gem, this is not your errand. If you did — a writing voice, a lesson-plan intern, a “talk like my shop” recipe — that text is yours. Auto-migrate is allowed to work. You still want a copy if Skills turn out to be a subscription closet with a new name.
This is not “quit Gemini.” It is not “Google ate your homework.” It is furniture. Furniture moves. Recipes should not live only in the landlord’s drawer.
What I'd actually do
Open the Gems manager. If you built one you still like, copy the instructions into a note you own. Notes app. A file. Anywhere that is not Google’s side panel.
Do not wait for the 404. Do not buy Pro so a raccoon can be proud. If you already pay, peek at Spark → Skills and see whether the migrate lands. If you never made a Gem: skip. Auto-migrate can do its job without you watching.
You do not have to leave Gemini. You also do not have to keep the only copy of your voice inside a feature Google is already eulogizing.
The extra room
How it works
Gems: custom Gemini, side panel, optional default tool, files, share link. Skills: custom instructions you invoke with /, or Spark applies when it thinks they fit. Multiple at once. You can upload a SKILL.md. Scripts that hit the internet are not supported.
What this is not
Proof your Gem vanishes at midnight on the 17th. Proof free users are locked out. Proof you need Spark. The banner says migrate. The help page says Pro/Ultra. Those two sentences are allowed to both be true until Google writes a third.
What not to do
Do not paste someone else’s “skill pack” from a random download because the kitchen is moving. Do not turn Keep Activity on as a personality quiz. Do not treat “we’ll handle it” as a backup.
The sticky-note version: copy the recipe. Let them move the stove.
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