Gems, skills, and the November change
Gemini lets you save a set of instructions and reuse them, which is what a story needs: the world, your character, and the rules, written once. Until now that meant a Gem. Google is replacing Gems with skills on personal Google accounts:
| Date | What happens to Gems |
|---|---|
| November 17, 2026 | They become read-only. You can still open them, but you can’t use or edit them, or create new ones. |
| December 17, 2026 | They are removed. |
Google says it will turn your Gems into skills automatically, and you can recreate a Gem as a skill yourself before then. Work and school accounts follow in 2027.
Skills are reusable instructions you call into a chat by typing / (or @, with the newer shortcut) and choosing one. Google’s help center says they need a personal account for someone 18 or over, with Keep Activity turned on, and no Google AI subscription. If you’re starting a story now, a skill will outlast November. The instructions below work in either.
Write the story in four parts
Google’s tips for Gems suggest four parts for good instructions: a persona, a task, context, and a format. They fit a story well, and Google’s advice for skills adds one more worth keeping, a section that warns about common mistakes. Here are all five, filled in for a gothic mystery:
The last part follows another of Google’s tips for skills: say exactly what to do when a piece of information is missing. In a story, the missing piece is usually your character’s next move, and the right response is to stop and let you make it.
Save it as a skill or a Gem
As a skill
- On gemini.google.com, open Customize in the sidebar (under More if you don’t see it), then Skills.
- Choose Create, then Create manually.
- Name it with a verb, such as “Narrate the Ashcombe mystery”, and give it a description that starts “Use when”, such as “Use when I start or continue the Ashcombe story.”
- Paste the instructions and choose Create.
- In a new chat, type / (or @), pick the skill, and send your opening.
As a Gem, until November 17, 2026
- On gemini.google.com, open Explore Gems, then New Gem.
- Name the Gem and paste the instructions.
- Under Knowledge, add any files you have, such as a cast list.
- Try it in the preview, then choose Save. The preview doesn’t save on its own.
Gemini can help with the drafting too. The Gem editor can rewrite rough instructions for you, and Gemini can build a skill from a chat. Before you save either, check that the rule about your character survived the rewrite. Google’s policy guidelines for the Gemini app apply to stories as they do to any other chat.
Play the opening scene
Start the chat with your skill or Gem and an opening that puts your character somewhere with a problem already in motion:
Then take turns. Write what your character attempts or says, and let Gemini describe what follows:
- Elias asks Lady Ashcombe whose chairs those are, and watches who looks away first.
- He leaves before dessert to study the painted-over portraits by candlelight.
- He scrapes a corner of paint from the smallest portrait with his palette knife.
- {Skip to the next morning. Elias slept badly.}
- {Give the youngest Ashcombe a reason to trust Elias.}
- {Shorter replies for a while. This scene should move quickly.}
Curly-brace notes are the quickest way to change the pace. Keep them short, and go straight back to the story after each one.
If Gemini starts playing your character
The mistakes section does most of the work, though a long scene can still produce a reply in which Elias nods, agrees, or walks off. Fix it before the next reply follows its example:
- Edit and resend. Edit your last message to repeat the rule, then send it again.
- Name the line that crossed over. {You decided Elias agreed to stay. He hasn’t answered yet. Rewrite from Lady Ashcombe’s question.}
- Say where to stop. {End each reply as soon as someone speaks to Elias.}
- Call the skill again before an important scene in a long chat.
If it keeps happening, start a fresh chat from your recap, as the next section describes.
Carry a long story across chats
Gemini can bring in some things you’ve told it before. Saved info, under Personal context in Settings & help, holds what you ask Gemini to remember, and you can ask it to look at your past chats before it answers. Google describes saved info as facts about your life, work, or preferences, which makes it a poor home for a story’s plot, and it says these features aren’t available to users under 18.
Keep the story’s memory with the story:
- Recap at the end of each sitting. Use the prompt below.
- Store the recap. Add it to the Gem’s knowledge as a file, or keep it in a document of your own.
- Start fresh when details slip. Open a new chat with the skill or Gem, and paste the recap after the resume prompt.
To resume in a new chat, paste the recap after this:
Gemini with the memory kept for you
As a general assistant, Gemini does a great deal well, and with clear instructions and a recap it can carry a story a long way. For stories that run for months, many players move to LoreWeaver, where a storyteller runs the world and the bookkeeping happens around your turns:
- Memory written for you. Every 4 replies, LoreWeaver saves what happened, then brings back the memories that fit the moment by meaning, wording, and who is in the scene. A running recap, which you can edit, covers the whole story.
- Lore cards for every person, place, and thing, joining a reply when they’re named, or every reply when pinned. From Plus, Lorekeeper suggests new cards as the story invents them, and the LoreMap shows how they connect.
- The Loom, which fires planned events when their conditions are met and keeps trackers such as health, quests, inventory, and dice checks on screen.
- Google’s models, built in, with no Google AI plan or API key needed. Gemini 3.8 Flash opens on Pro. Google’s open-weights Gemma 4 31B opens on Plus, and free accounts can play it with their 25 premium replies a day. They sit among 43 models, Claude and GPT included, and you can switch mid-story without losing memories or lore.
Bringing a Gemini story over
- In the world builder, describe your story in a sentence or two. It writes the premise, the people and places as lore cards, who you play, and an opening, and you can change any part before you begin.
- Paste your latest recap into the story’s recap in the Memory panel. The storyteller reads it before every reply, and later updates build on your text.
- Put standing direction, such as “no romance subplots”, in session notes, which are read on every reply.
- Choose Gemini 3.8 Flash, or any model your plan includes, and play on.
LoreWeaver accounts are for adults, 18 and over.
Sources
- Gemini Apps Help: About the transition from Gems to skills
- Gemini Apps Help: Create & manage skills for Gemini Apps
- Gemini Apps Help: Write effective skills for Gemini Apps
- Gemini Apps Help: Tips for creating custom Gems
- Gemini Apps Help: Use Gems in Gemini Apps
- Gemini Apps Help: Save info and reference past chats in Gemini Apps
- Policy guidelines for the Gemini app
All checked October 30, 2026.
