Release date: 1 September 2026.
In the first post about the September update, we looked at the rewritten Leasey Texts application, the new Clipboard History feature and the many improvements to Leasey Media Centre.
This second post continues the tour.
As before, this is not a complete list of every change. The documentation will provide that level of detail. What we want to do here is highlight the improvements we think users will notice most quickly, especially those which have come directly from feedback during testing.
The September update continues the same theme as the original 11.5 release: take features people are using every day, listen carefully, and make them faster, clearer and more comfortable.
LeaseySocial was one of the largest new features in Leasey 11.5. It provides a fast, keyboard-driven, JAWS-friendly Windows client for Mastodon and Bluesky, with speech, Braille, sounds, global hotkeys and extensive customisation at the heart of the design.
The September update adds several new capabilities and refinements.
LeaseySocial already has many shortcut keys, menu commands and context menu actions. However, when you are reading social media quickly, sometimes even a full shortcut key can feel like one step too many.
Quick Navigation Keys provide single-letter commands while focus is in the Posts list.
They are switched on or off with JAWS Key+Z, and they are off by default. That is an important design decision. We do not want letters typed in the Posts list to perform actions unless the user has deliberately enabled the feature.
When Quick Navigation Keys are on, you can use single letters for common tasks.
For example:
For people who live in social media, this could make a big difference. It allows reading and acting to become extremely fluid. Move through posts, press one letter to reply, another to bookmark, another to open a conversation, another to look at a profile. It reduces the amount of key holding and makes LeaseySocial feel even more like a purpose-built application rather than a web page wrapped in extra commands.
Mastodon users often use hashtags to follow events, conferences, communities, topics or breaking discussions. In the September update, LeaseySocial can follow a hashtag.
Following a hashtag asks Mastodon to place posts containing that hashtag into your Home timeline. This may include posts from people you do not follow, which is precisely why the feature is useful.
For example, if there is a conference hashtag, a campaign hashtag, a technology topic or a community discussion you want to monitor, you can follow it and have those posts appear naturally in your Home timeline.
You can follow a hashtag when you already know its name. You can type it with or without the number sign.
You can also follow or unfollow a hashtag from a hashtag result, such as Trending Hashtags, Followed Hashtags or hashtag search results.
This is another example of LeaseySocial trying to keep important Mastodon features inside the app, rather than forcing users to go back to the web interface for routine account management.
Most of the time, when you send a post, reply, quote or direct message, LeaseySocial sends it immediately.
But social media servers are not perfect. Mastodon servers can temporarily refuse requests if too many API calls have been made in a short period. This is called rate limiting. It can happen more often if someone uses several timelines, lists, hashtags, instance timelines or accounts, because the app is asking the server for more information.
There can also be temporary network problems or server errors.
In previous circumstances, a user might write a post, attempt to send it, and receive an error. That is frustrating, especially if the post is important.
The September update introduces queued posts and the Outbox.
If LeaseySocial tries to send a post and the server says it is temporarily limiting requests, the app can place the post in the Outbox. The same can happen for temporary network problems or temporary server errors.
JAWS will tell you:
Post queued and will be retried automatically.
That means the post has not yet been sent, but it has not been lost. It is waiting in the Outbox until LeaseySocial can try again.
This is not used for errors which are unlikely to succeed later. For example, if the account is not authorised, the post is not allowed, the original post cannot be found or the post text is not accepted by the server, LeaseySocial gives the normal error message instead.
The Outbox can be opened from the Tools menu or from Leasey Command Centre. You can review queued posts, hear whether they are queued or failed, hear a preview of the post and find out how many attempts have been made.
You can also edit a queued post. The edit dialog allows changes to the post text, visibility, content warning and alternative text for attached media. When you save the changes, the post remains in the Outbox and will be retried later.
This is the kind of feature you may not think about when everything is working, but you will be very glad to have it when a server is busy or a connection is unreliable.
The profile dialog in LeaseySocial has also gained a useful Mastodon option.
For Mastodon profiles, the dialog may include a check box to exclude boosts from that user. This is available when you are following the user and the server provides the setting.
When checked, Mastodon is asked not to place that user's boosts in your Home timeline. You still follow the user, and their own posts can still appear.
We hope this is a thoughtful feature because it reflects how people actually use social media. You may value someone's own posts but not want every item they boost. LeaseySocial now gives access to that preference from inside the profile dialog.
The Translate Text feature described below for LeaseyWord is also available in LeaseySocial.
It can translate selected text, or a post. It can be used with incoming or outgoing material.
That means you might translate a post someone else has written, or translate text you are preparing to send. For people who communicate across languages, this could be a very practical addition.
There is a new option in LeaseySocial's General Options:
Set focus to posts in last used timeline on startup.
When checked, LeaseySocial starts with focus in the Posts list for the timeline you were using last, if posts are available. LeaseySocial also briefly announces the timeline name, such as Home, Mentions or United View, so you know where you are.
When unchecked, LeaseySocial starts in the normal account and timeline area, which is the behaviour users have now.
This gives users a choice.
Some people want the most predictable startup position and prefer to begin at the account list. Others open LeaseySocial because they want to start reading immediately. The new option supports both styles.
Talk to ChatGPT was introduced in Leasey 11.5, but the September update changes the feel of it significantly.
Previously, the process was more like recording a spoken prompt. You recorded the prompt, it was sent to ChatGPT, there was a pause while it was processed, and then the response came back.
That was useful, but it was not quite conversational.
The new version is much closer to speaking with someone. Responses are typically received within five seconds.
You start a live conversation. JAWS says:
Connecting.
When the conversation is ready, JAWS says:
Start talking.
You then speak your question naturally. When you stop speaking, Leasey detects the end of your speech and sends the question to ChatGPT. You do not need to press a key after every question.
When ChatGPT has finished answering, you can simply ask another question.
If current information is needed, Leasey may search the web, and JAWS will say:
Searching web.
If you want to stop the spoken answer and ask something else, press Alt+S. JAWS says:
Start talking.
You can then speak the next question.
This makes the feature feel much more immediate.
You might ask about the weather, then ask whether you should take a coat.
You might ask for lunch ideas, then ask for a shopping list.
You might ask for a short message cancelling an appointment, then ask for it to be warmer and shorter.
You might ask for a plain English explanation of a news item, then ask a follow-up question without repeating the background.
The transcript remains available in an edit field, and it can be copied to the clipboard if you want to keep the conversation or paste it into another document, email message or Leasey feature.
LeaseyWord continues to develop as a practical reading and writing environment.
In the September update, two small but very useful navigation commands have been added.
JAWS users will be familiar with the web commands for listing headings and links. LeaseyWord now provides similar commands for the current document.
JAWS Key+F6 opens the list of headings.
JAWS Key+F7 opens the list of links.
The headings dialog shows each heading followed by its level. You can move through the headings with Up and Down Arrow and press Enter to move to the selected heading.
The links dialog lists Markdown links, HTML links, visible web addresses and visible email addresses found in the current document. If a link has visible text and a destination, both are shown. Again, use Up and Down Arrow to move through the list and press Enter to move to the selected link.
These are not dramatic commands, but they are exactly the kind of commands that make document review faster. If you are reading a long Markdown file, HTML file, documentation chapter or converted document, being able to list headings and links immediately gives you structure.
LeaseyWord also gains Translate Text.
This uses ChatGPT to translate text directly inside LeaseyWord.
If text is selected, only the selected text is translated. If no text is selected, the whole document is translated.
You choose the target language from a combo box. The list includes languages such as English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Polish, Ukrainian, Welsh, Irish, Japanese and Chinese. You can also type another language if it is not in the list.
ChatGPT detects the source language automatically.
When the translation is complete, the translated text replaces the selected text. If no text was selected, it replaces the document text.
This could be useful in many situations:
Leasey Spell Check was introduced in Leasey 11.5 to give JAWS users a consistent way of checking spelling in plain text, regardless of which application was used to write the text.
The September update improves the workflow.
Previously, spell checking involved the clipboard. Now you select the text you want to check, launch Leasey Spell Check, make corrections, and the corrected text replaces the selected text.
That is a much cleaner process.
It is especially useful in web forms, email messages, social media posts, chat windows and text editors where the built-in spell checker may not be comfortable to use with JAWS.
The spell checker still gives you the same careful review. It reports the misspelled word, spells it, provides suggestions, spells the first suggestion, allows you to change, change all, ignore, ignore all, add to the dictionary, hear the sentence again, finish or cancel.
But the important practical improvement is that you no longer need to copy text to the clipboard, run the check, return to the original application and paste the corrected version yourself. Leasey can replace the selected text directly.
Leasey File Manager gains a very practical Outlook feature.
You can now save an attachment from an Outlook message directly into the folder currently open in Leasey File Manager.
Use Control+Shift+A.
The command asks Outlook directly for the attachments. It does not use the Windows Clipboard, and you do not need to copy the attachment first.
The process is straightforward:
The attachment is saved into the current Leasey File Manager folder, and focus is placed on the saved attachment where possible.
This is far preferable to trying to copy and paste directly from Outlook in many circumstances. Leasey can expose files which may be part of the message, such as images. If you save an image to a folder, you can then use JAWS Picture Smart to examine it.
The JAWS Tools menu in Leasey File Manager is opened with Control+Shift+J.
The first item is now JAWS Settings.
This runs the JAWS Settings function provided by Leasey. It takes the user directly to the JAWS Settings folder, where scripts and configuration files can be added or removed.
This is an area many JAWS users need to reach at times, but it is not always obvious where it is or how to get there. Placing it on the JAWS Tools menu makes it much easier to access.
The JAWS Tools menu also continues to provide Picture Smart with JAWS, Convenient OCR to Word with JAWS and Convenient OCR with JAWS for the focused file where those actions are available.
The September update is not trying to replace the Summer release. It builds on it.
LeaseySocial becomes faster and more resilient.
Talk to ChatGPT becomes more conversational.
LeaseyWord gains more navigation and translation power.
Leasey Spell Check becomes easier to use from almost anywhere.
Leasey File Manager gains practical Outlook and JAWS tools.
Together with the rewritten Leasey Texts, new Clipboard History and the Media Centre improvements described in the first post, this is a substantial update shaped almost entirely by user feedback.
The update is planned for release on 1 September 2026.
We are grateful to everyone who has helped test, question, challenge and improve Leasey 11.5. Please keep the feedback coming. It is making a real difference.