Sunmi Tells The Verge She Relies on Notion, Samsung Devices, and Ear-Cleaning Videos

Wonder Girls were among the first K-pop acts to break through in the West. The English version of their single "Nobody" became the first K-pop song to hit the Billboard Hot 100 in October 2009. Sunmi left the group in 2010 to return to school, then released her debut solo EP "Full Moon" in 2014. She rejoined Wonder Girls in 2015. Her awards include Song of the Year for "Gashina" at the Gaon Chart Music Awards. She released her first solo LP, "Heart Maid," in 2025. This year she released "Forever July," which blends '90s R&B synths with rubbery bass and UK garage-inspired drums; she has called it one of her most personal songs.

On tools, Sunmi said she uses her phone constantly, especially the Notes app and Voice Memos, to capture lyrics or music ideas immediately. She named the Samsung Galaxy series as the most underappreciated technology, saying it has made her work environment easier. On a new phone or computer, she usually does not install apps separately because data transfers from her previous device, but if that process did not exist, she would install KakaoTalk first. She wished her phone gallery could recognize similar or duplicate photos and group them for bulk deletion.

Her pinned tab bar includes Notion. She said she uses it often for group projects, that it is convenient but takes a long time to get used to, and that its user interface could be improved. At the time of the Q&A, she had four tabs open: Notion, Google Drive, YouTube, and Claude. She said she does not use social media much but uses Instagram and X most. Her happy place online is YouTube videos of people getting their ears cleaned.

Sunmi's favorite gadget she has owned is the Samsung Z Fold 8, which she said is convenient for working on documents or editing videos while on the go. She noted she can work with both hands on a wide screen and that the device is surprisingly light. Her fondest gaming memories are of Nexon's MapleStory, which she played in elementary school and sometimes revisited through the mobile version as an adult. She said she wishes deepfakes would go away, and that she wishes she had created "Stranger Things 5" and "Game of Thrones 8."

Of her own work, Sunmi said she is most proud of "Tail," a song that still excites her every time she performs it live, describing how the audience breathes with her. She is least proud of "You Can't Sit with Us," her first attempt at rapping, which she said had terrible lyrics and vocals. The best advice she has received is to always stay humble and never become arrogant. Her current obsession is ice cream, particularly Salt & Straw's Salted Caramel Waffle Cone, which she said has no equivalent in Korea.

When she needs to focus, she finds a small space to organize her thoughts. When she feels stuck, she says "No?" out loud, a practice she uses to interrupt negative thoughts such as "I can't do this." She said that during shoots she leaves her phone with her manager and barely looks at it even during short breaks, but she has never actually gone somewhere without her phone.