diff --git a/ui/html-view/html-view.android.ts b/ui/html-view/html-view.android.ts
index fdca0da27..8ac93fe1f 100644
--- a/ui/html-view/html-view.android.ts
+++ b/ui/html-view/html-view.android.ts
@@ -10,6 +10,14 @@ function onHtmlPropertyChanged(data: dependencyObservable.PropertyChangeData) {
     }
 
     if (types.isString(data.newValue)) {
+        // If the data.newValue actually has a <a...> in it; we need to disable autolink mask
+        // it internally disables the coloring, but then the <a> links won't work..  So to support both
+        // styles of links (html and just text based) we have to manually enable/disable the autolink mask
+        var mask = 15;
+        if (data.newValue.search(/<a\s/i) >= 0) {
+            mask = 0;
+        }
+        view.android.setAutoLinkMask(mask);
         view.android.setText(<any>android.text.Html.fromHtml(data.newValue));
     } else {
         view.android.setText("");
@@ -30,5 +38,10 @@ export class HtmlView extends common.HtmlView {
 
     public _createUI() {
         this._android = new android.widget.TextView(this._context);
+        // This makes the html <a href...> vwork
+        this._android.setLinksClickable(true);
+        this._android.setMovementMethod(android.text.method.LinkMovementMethod.getInstance());
+
     }
+
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/ui/html-view/html-view.ios.ts b/ui/html-view/html-view.ios.ts
index 79001ff2d..ba42724e3 100644
--- a/ui/html-view/html-view.ios.ts
+++ b/ui/html-view/html-view.ios.ts
@@ -27,21 +27,24 @@ function onHtmlPropertyChanged(data: dependencyObservable.PropertyChangeData) {
 global.moduleMerge(common, exports);
 
 export class HtmlView extends common.HtmlView {
-    private _ios: UILabel;
+    private _ios: UITextView;
 
     constructor(options?: definition.Options) {
         super(options);
+        this._ios = UITextView.new();
 
-        this._ios = new UILabel();
-        this._ios.userInteractionEnabled = true;
-        this._ios.numberOfLines = 0;
+        this._ios.scrollEnabled = false;
+        this._ios.editable = false;
+        this._ios.selectable = true;
+        this._ios.userInteractionEnabled  = true;
+        this._ios.dataDetectorTypes = UIDataDetectorTypes.UIDataDetectorTypeAll;
     }
 
-    get ios(): UILabel {
+    get ios(): UITextView {
         return this._ios;
     }
 
-    get _nativeView(): UILabel {
+    get _nativeView(): UITextView {
         return this._ios;
     }