40 characters subject line. Outdated or still secret sauce?

Good morning guys and gyals,

In the copywriting starter course, Tyson mentioned that having a 40 character subject line is a secret weapon, because it the exact length where people get to see the entire subject line without opening the email. (I'm not sure if the 40 characters rule goes for a push notification as well, because I think we can agree that a iPhone SE is way smaller than a iPhone 15 Pro Max for example.)

The reason I'm asking, is because I've been reading copy for quite some time now to get some inspiration and ideas, and I've been seeing some banger SL's but those all where way longer than 40 characters. In addition on my notebook on gmail I can see SL's up to about 90 characters fully without opening the email (13" MacBook).

If somebody knows about that I'd be super grateful if you guys can drop that down in the comments.

Much appreciation!

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