By This Hour Technology Desk
Sunmi has described a personal technology setup that is modest in the number of tools it contains but broad in the jobs it is asked to do: capture a lyric before it disappears, coordinate work with other people, revise documents while travelling, edit video, and make room for a decidedly non-work pastime on YouTube.
In a Weekend Questionnaire published by The Verge on October 10, 2026, the K-pop performer said Notion was pinned in her browser and used frequently for group projects. She said four tabs were open at the time: Notion, Google Drive, YouTube and Claude. Taken together, the selection presents a working system divided among planning, shared files, viewing and an AI service, rather than a single all-purpose creative platform.
The most revealing part of the account may be its limits. Sunmi described Notion as helpful but said its interface could be easier to use. She also identified her phone, not a specialist studio device or computer, as her indispensable tool for lyrics and musical ideas. Her account offers a narrow but useful picture of how an artist can assemble everyday consumer software around intermittent creative work.
A four-tab division of labour
Sunmi’s reported tab list is concise enough to read as a map of distinct tasks. Notion, in her description, is the workspace for projects involving other people. Google Drive sits alongside it as a separate destination for files. YouTube serves both general viewing and personal relaxation. Claude is the fourth tab, though the questionnaire did not say what she was using the AI service for, how often she used it, or whether it had a role in writing, production or administration.
That last uncertainty matters. The presence of an AI tab does not establish that it shaped a song, a lyric, a business decision or any other piece of work. It establishes only that Sunmi said Claude was open when she answered the questionnaire. Any stronger conclusion about creative use would go beyond the material available.
Her comments about Notion are more specific. She said she used it often because she handled many group projects, suggesting it had a regular place in coordination rather than being an occasional experiment. But she paired that endorsement with a usability reservation: the product was convenient, in her view, yet took time to become accustomed to and could benefit from a better interface.
The combination is familiar to anyone whose work crosses several collaborators and document types. A tool may become essential because it provides a common place to organize work, without becoming effortless to navigate. Sunmi’s comments do not identify particular project partners, the materials stored in Notion, or the scale of those projects. They do, however, distinguish practical utility from satisfaction with product design.
Her answer also resists a simplistic portrait of a celebrity operating through a large suite of bespoke systems. The tools named are widely recognized consumer or workplace services, and the reported browser lineup is short. The significance lies less in novelty than in the way separate services appear to coexist: planning in one place, files in another, video on a third service, and an AI product open alongside them.
The phone remains the first place for an idea
For all the attention paid to browser tabs, Sunmi reportedly placed her phone at the centre of her creative routine. She said she used Notes and Voice Memos while writing lyrics or making music, allowing her to record an idea immediately. The account makes the phone sound less like a device reserved for communication or consumption and more like a portable intake point for unfinished thoughts.
That is a different role from the one she assigned to Notion. Notion was tied to collective projects and organization; the phone’s built-in apps were tied to the instant at which an idea needs to be saved. The distinction suggests a workflow with at least two tempos. One is fast and private, concerned with preserving fragments. The other is more deliberate and collaborative, concerned with arranging work that involves a group.
Neither the questionnaire nor the supplied material says how those notes and recordings move from a phone into later stages of songwriting or production. There is no indication of what devices or software are used after initial capture, whether voice recordings are shared, or whether Notes functions as an archive. Those omissions are important because the account describes an early creative step, not an end-to-end production process.
Sunmi also said she favored Samsung’s Galaxy line and was using a Samsung Z Fold 8. She characterized the foldable device as useful for document work and video editing while on the move, particularly because its wider display could be used with both hands. In that account, the foldable format fills a middle position between a conventional phone and a larger computer screen.
Her praise was functional rather than technical. She did not discuss specifications, software versions, battery life, cameras or pricing. Instead, she emphasized the ability to handle documents and video away from a fixed workspace, and said the device felt light for its form. That framing is consistent with the rest of the questionnaire: the value of technology lies in whether it lets her continue a task when a good idea arrives or when travel interrupts a more settled work routine.
Convenience does not erase friction
There is a useful tension in the tools Sunmi named. Her workflow depends on convenience: a phone ready for notes and recordings, a foldable screen that can support mobile editing, and a project platform she uses repeatedly with others. Yet she also described friction. Notion’s interface, she said, could improve, even as she kept it pinned and returned to it often.
That qualification prevents the account from becoming a straightforward endorsement of any one product. A pinned tab signals access and habit, not necessarily affection. Likewise, a favored phone can be the preferred device for a particular kind of travel-based task without settling broader questions about a person’s entire technology setup. The questionnaire records personal preferences in a specific format, not a product review or a comprehensive inventory.
The same caution applies to the term “group projects.” It points to collaboration but leaves major details unresolved. The supplied material does not say whether Notion is used with musicians, business staff, creative teams or another set of collaborators. It does not identify a workflow for permissions, approvals, deadlines or content management. The most defensible reading is simply that Sunmi reported using the service frequently when work involves others.
Still, the arrangement offers a glimpse of why software boundaries persist. A person can find Notion useful for coordination while relying on Google Drive as another open destination for files, then use a phone’s default utilities for quick creation. Convenience in one context does not automatically make a service the right place for every document, recording or video.
A private corner of the same online routine
Sunmi’s technology answers also included an online habit with no stated connection to work. She identified YouTube videos of ear-cleaning sessions as her preferred place to unwind online. The detail is unusual, but it gives YouTube a clearly separate place in the reported set of tabs: not only a video destination within a browser routine, but a personal refuge.
The questionnaire did not say which channels she watched, how frequently she viewed this material, or what she found appealing about it. It would therefore be unwarranted to infer a wider viewing trend from one person’s preference. What can be said is that she named this category of videos when asked where she feels happiest online, while YouTube was also among the four tabs she said were open.
Put beside the working tools, the answer makes the overall setup feel less segmented than formal accounts of productivity software often imply. The same browser environment contains project organization, shared storage, an AI service and entertainment. For Sunmi, at least in this reported snapshot, work and respite are accessed through a small set of familiar destinations rather than through a strictly separated professional system.
What the questionnaire can and cannot show
The Verge identified the item as part of its Weekend Questionnaire series and attributed the interview to Terrence O’Brien. Its format is important to the scope of the claims. The answers are first-person descriptions of habits and preferences, but they are brief responses, not independently documented demonstrations of a workflow.
As a result, the material supports limited conclusions: Sunmi reportedly uses Notion frequently for group work, has described a four-tab browser snapshot, relies on phone notes and recordings for creative ideas, and regards a Samsung foldable phone as useful for mobile documents and video editing. It also supports the more personal point that she likes ear-cleaning videos on YouTube. It does not establish the frequency, duration or commercial importance of any individual practice beyond what she said.
The report has not been independently corroborated. No additional source material was supplied to confirm the interview responses, the device use described, or the purposes for which Claude was open. Readers should treat the account as a source-bound portrait of Sunmi’s stated habits, rather than a verified account of her complete creative or professional technology stack.
For further context on this subject, see Google pauses open-source bug bounty program amid surge in automated AI submissions.
Reporting notes
What is confirmed: Sunmi reportedly uses Notion for group projects and phone Notes and Voice Memos for lyric or music ideas.
Why this matters: Her answers show a personal workflow that separates quick idea capture, collaborative organization and mobile editing across everyday tools.
What remains unclear: The material does not explain how she uses Claude or detail how her tools fit into a complete production process. This report is based on one source and has not been independently corroborated.
