The Lab Notes

Google

Gemini adds a Customize hub for skills and 40-plus connected apps

Google put skills and connected apps in one Customize menu in the Gemini app, with admin controls for connected apps in the Admin console.

The Lab Notes ·

An orange hatched toolbox with its lid open, a blue panel inside and three round dials on the front, in a white-outlined sticker cutout, between a dark purple panel with thin white arcs on the left and a pattern of smaller pink, blue and orange toolboxes on an orange field on the right.

Google has put skills and connected apps in a single Customize hub in the Gemini app. Users set how Gemini responds and which outside services it reaches from one menu. Admins review the connections in the Admin console.

Google described the hub in a Workspace Updates post dated Oct. 21, 2026.

Skills Hold Tone and Format Preferences

Users configure custom skills and prompt preferences for repetitive tasks. Google’s examples are adapting to a personal writing style and following specific formatting guidelines. The skills can keep a tone and voice or enforce a response structure. These are skills in the Gemini app. Google said Oct. 13 that skills in Workspace are delayed until further notice.

Connected Apps Cover More Than 40 Services

The hub connects Gemini to Google apps and more than 40 external services. Users choose which ones to connect. Permissions can be audited or disconnected at any time. Most connected apps are available in English in the U.S. for now. Select apps also work in additional English-speaking regions, Brazil and India.

Admins Review Connections in the Admin Console

Admins review connected apps and third-party tool integrations for Gemini in the Admin console, under Apps, then Additional Google services, then Gemini. Google’s help pages also point admins to controls for Gemini app access to Workspace services and to the Marketplace app allowlist.

End users select Customize in the left navigation menu in Gemini to add skills, explore apps and change connected services.

Rollout Runs Up to 15 Days on Workspace Domains

The hub is rolling out globally on the web, on mobile and in the Gemini desktop app on Windows and macOS. It is open to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual subscribers and users with personal Google Accounts. Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains get a gradual rollout of up to 15 days for feature visibility. The gradual rollout began Oct. 13, 2026. Google’s post is dated Oct. 21.

Our View

We start from one fact: employees can audit and disconnect their own permissions at any time. On a Workspace domain, the people choosing which apps to connect are the same people who can undo the choice. An admin reviewing the Gemini page in the Admin console sees the connections as they stand at that moment. Employees can connect or disconnect apps afterward.

Each connection gives Gemini a path into another service. The admin review describes those paths only as of the last time the admin looked.