diff --git a/packages/flutter/lib/src/painting/text_painter.dart b/packages/flutter/lib/src/painting/text_painter.dart
index 7808926e91518..9f14bd85803e9 100644
--- a/packages/flutter/lib/src/painting/text_painter.dart
+++ b/packages/flutter/lib/src/painting/text_painter.dart
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@
 
 import 'dart:ui' as ui show Paragraph, ParagraphBuilder, ParagraphStyle, TextBox;
 
+import 'package:flutter/gestures.dart';
+
 import 'basic_types.dart';
 import 'text_editing.dart';
 import 'text_style.dart';
@@ -26,7 +28,8 @@ class TextSpan {
   const TextSpan({
     this.style,
     this.text,
-    this.children
+    this.children,
+    this.recognizer
   });
 
   /// The style to apply to the text and the children.
@@ -44,6 +47,9 @@ class TextSpan {
   /// children.
   final List<TextSpan> children;
 
+  /// If non-null, will receive events that hit this text span.
+  final GestureRecognizer recognizer;
+
   void build(ui.ParagraphBuilder builder) {
     final bool hasStyle = style != null;
     if (hasStyle)
@@ -60,13 +66,47 @@ class TextSpan {
       builder.pop();
   }
 
-  void writePlainText(StringBuffer result) {
-    if (text != null)
-      result.write(text);
+  bool visitTextSpan(bool visitor(TextSpan span)) {
+    if (text != null) {
+      if (!visitor(this))
+        return false;
+    }
     if (children != null) {
-      for (TextSpan child in children)
-        child.writePlainText(result);
+      for (TextSpan child in children) {
+        if (!child.visitTextSpan(visitor))
+          return false;
+      }
     }
+    return true;
+  }
+
+  TextSpan getSpanForPosition(TextPosition position) {
+    TextAffinity affinity = position.affinity;
+    int targetOffset = position.offset;
+    int offset = 0;
+    TextSpan result;
+    visitTextSpan((TextSpan span) {
+      assert(result == null);
+      int endOffset = offset + span.text.length;
+      if (targetOffset == offset && affinity == TextAffinity.downstream ||
+          targetOffset > offset && targetOffset < endOffset ||
+          targetOffset == endOffset && affinity == TextAffinity.upstream) {
+        result = span;
+        return false;
+      }
+      offset = endOffset;
+      return true;
+    });
+    return result;
+  }
+
+  String toPlainText() {
+    StringBuffer buffer = new StringBuffer();
+    visitTextSpan((TextSpan span) {
+      buffer.write(span.text);
+      return true;
+    });
+    return buffer.toString();
   }
 
   String toString([String prefix = '']) {
@@ -89,9 +129,10 @@ class TextSpan {
     final TextSpan typedOther = other;
     return typedOther.text == text
         && typedOther.style == style
+        && typedOther.recognizer == recognizer
         && _deepEquals(typedOther.children, children);
   }
-  int get hashCode => hashValues(style, text, hashList(children));
+  int get hashCode => hashValues(style, text, recognizer, hashList(children));
 }
 
 /// An object that paints a [TextSpan] into a canvas.
diff --git a/packages/flutter/lib/src/rendering/paragraph.dart b/packages/flutter/lib/src/rendering/paragraph.dart
index b622c3f4b1e35..f86a4ece29f74 100644
--- a/packages/flutter/lib/src/rendering/paragraph.dart
+++ b/packages/flutter/lib/src/rendering/paragraph.dart
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 // Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be
 // found in the LICENSE file.
 
+import 'package:flutter/gestures.dart';
+
 import 'box.dart';
 import 'object.dart';
 import 'semantics.dart';
@@ -81,6 +83,16 @@ class RenderParagraph extends RenderBox {
 
   bool hitTestSelf(Point position) => true;
 
+  void handleEvent(PointerEvent event, BoxHitTestEntry entry) {
+    if (event is! PointerDownEvent)
+      return;
+    _layoutText(constraints);
+    Offset offset = entry.localPosition.toOffset();
+    TextPosition position = _textPainter.getPositionForOffset(offset);
+    TextSpan span = _textPainter.text.getSpanForPosition(position);
+    span?.recognizer?.addPointer(event);
+  }
+
   void performLayout() {
     _layoutText(constraints);
     size = constraints.constrain(_textPainter.size);
@@ -100,9 +112,7 @@ class RenderParagraph extends RenderBox {
 
   Iterable<SemanticAnnotator> getSemanticAnnotators() sync* {
     yield (SemanticsNode node) {
-      StringBuffer buffer = new StringBuffer();
-      text.writePlainText(buffer);
-      node.label = buffer.toString();
+      node.label = text.toPlainText();
     };
   }
 
diff --git a/packages/flutter/test/widget/hyperlink_test.dart b/packages/flutter/test/widget/hyperlink_test.dart
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..dd30068fca3ab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/flutter/test/widget/hyperlink_test.dart
@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+// Copyright 2015 The Chromium Authors. All rights reserved.
+// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be
+// found in the LICENSE file.
+
+import 'package:flutter_test/flutter_test.dart';
+import 'package:flutter/gestures.dart';
+import 'package:flutter/widgets.dart';
+import 'package:test/test.dart';
+
+void main() {
+  test('Can tap a hyperlink', () {
+    testWidgets((WidgetTester tester) {
+      bool didTapLeft = false;
+      TapGestureRecognizer tapLeft = new TapGestureRecognizer(
+        router: Gesturer.instance.pointerRouter,
+        gestureArena: Gesturer.instance.gestureArena,
+        onTap: () {
+          didTapLeft = true;
+        }
+      );
+
+      bool didTapRight = false;
+      TapGestureRecognizer tapRight = new TapGestureRecognizer(
+        router: Gesturer.instance.pointerRouter,
+        gestureArena: Gesturer.instance.gestureArena,
+        onTap: () {
+          didTapRight = true;
+        }
+      );
+
+      Key textKey = new Key('text');
+
+      tester.pumpWidget(
+        new Center(
+          child: new RichText(
+            key: textKey,
+            text: new TextSpan(
+              children: <TextSpan>[
+                new TextSpan(
+                  text: 'xxxxxxxx',
+                  recognizer: tapLeft
+                ),
+                new TextSpan(text: 'yyyyyyyy'),
+                new TextSpan(
+                  text: 'zzzzzzzzz',
+                  recognizer: tapRight
+                ),
+              ]
+            )
+          )
+        )
+      );
+
+      Element element = tester.findElementByKey(textKey);
+      RenderBox box = element.renderObject;
+
+      expect(didTapLeft, isFalse);
+      expect(didTapRight, isFalse);
+
+      tester.tapAt(box.localToGlobal(Point.origin) + new Offset(2.0, 2.0));
+
+      expect(didTapLeft, isTrue);
+      expect(didTapRight, isFalse);
+
+      didTapLeft = false;
+
+      tester.tapAt(box.localToGlobal(Point.origin) + new Offset(30.0, 2.0));
+
+      expect(didTapLeft, isTrue);
+      expect(didTapRight, isFalse);
+
+      didTapLeft = false;
+
+      tester.tapAt(box.localToGlobal(new Point(box.size.width, 0.0)) + new Offset(-2.0, 2.0));
+
+      expect(didTapLeft, isFalse);
+      expect(didTapRight, isTrue);
+    });
+  });
+}