Text selection on touch devices can be a difficult task for users. Letters and words are often too small to select directly , and the enhanced interaction techniques provided by the OS – magnifiers, selection handles, and methods for selecting at the character, word, or sentence level – often lead to as many usability problems as they solve. The introduction of force-sensitive touchscreens has added another enhancement to text selection (using force for different selection modes); however, these modes are difficult to discover and many users continue to struggle with accurate selection. In this paper we report on an investigation of the design of touch-based and force-based text selection mechanisms, and describe two novel text-selection techniques that provide improved discov-erability, enhanced visual feedback, and a higher performance ceiling for experienced users. Two evaluations show that one design successfully combined support for novices and experts , was never worse than the standard iOS technique, and was preferred by participants.