diff --git a/src/demo-app/style/style-demo.html b/src/demo-app/style/style-demo.html
index a3aee1f7bb3f..66c6ad6641dd 100644
--- a/src/demo-app/style/style-demo.html
+++ b/src/demo-app/style/style-demo.html
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 <button (click)="b.focus()">focus programmatically</button>
 
 <button (click)="fom.focusVia(b, renderer, 'mouse')">focusVia: mouse</button>
+<button (click)="fom.focusVia(b, renderer, 'touch')">focusVia: touch</button>
 <button (click)="fom.focusVia(b, renderer, 'keyboard')">focusVia: keyboard</button>
 <button (click)="fom.focusVia(b, renderer, 'program')">focusVia: program</button>
 
diff --git a/src/demo-app/style/style-demo.scss b/src/demo-app/style/style-demo.scss
index a04570ce0dee..95b98232e98f 100644
--- a/src/demo-app/style/style-demo.scss
+++ b/src/demo-app/style/style-demo.scss
@@ -13,3 +13,7 @@
 .demo-button.cdk-program-focused {
   background: blue;
 }
+
+.demo-button.cdk-touch-focused {
+  background: purple;
+}
diff --git a/src/lib/core/style/focus-classes.spec.ts b/src/lib/core/style/focus-classes.spec.ts
index 2ef8c0e9fd9c..02cd142a7507 100644
--- a/src/lib/core/style/focus-classes.spec.ts
+++ b/src/lib/core/style/focus-classes.spec.ts
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ import {Component, Renderer, ViewChild} from '@angular/core';
 import {StyleModule} from './index';
 import {By} from '@angular/platform-browser';
 import {TAB} from '../keyboard/keycodes';
-import {FocusOriginMonitor, FocusOrigin, CdkFocusClasses} from './focus-classes';
+import {FocusOriginMonitor, FocusOrigin, CdkFocusClasses, TOUCH_BUFFER_MS} from './focus-classes';
 
 describe('FocusOriginMonitor', () => {
   let fixture: ComponentFixture<PlainButton>;
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ describe('FocusOriginMonitor', () => {
 
   it('should detect focus via mouse', async(() => {
     // Simulate focus via mouse.
-    dispatchMousedownEvent(document);
+    dispatchMousedownEvent(buttonElement);
     buttonElement.focus();
     fixture.detectChanges();
 
@@ -90,6 +90,25 @@ describe('FocusOriginMonitor', () => {
     }, 0);
   }));
 
+  it('should detect focus via touch', async(() => {
+    // Simulate focus via touch.
+    dispatchTouchstartEvent(buttonElement);
+    buttonElement.focus();
+    fixture.detectChanges();
+
+    setTimeout(() => {
+      fixture.detectChanges();
+
+      expect(buttonElement.classList.length)
+          .toBe(2, 'button should have exactly 2 focus classes');
+      expect(buttonElement.classList.contains('cdk-focused'))
+          .toBe(true, 'button should have cdk-focused class');
+      expect(buttonElement.classList.contains('cdk-touch-focused'))
+          .toBe(true, 'button should have cdk-touch-focused class');
+      expect(changeHandler).toHaveBeenCalledWith('touch');
+    }, TOUCH_BUFFER_MS);
+  }));
+
   it('should detect programmatic focus', async(() => {
     // Programmatically focus.
     buttonElement.focus();
@@ -142,6 +161,23 @@ describe('FocusOriginMonitor', () => {
     }, 0);
   }));
 
+  it('focusVia mouse should simulate mouse focus', async(() => {
+    focusOriginMonitor.focusVia(buttonElement, buttonRenderer, 'touch');
+    fixture.detectChanges();
+
+    setTimeout(() => {
+      fixture.detectChanges();
+
+      expect(buttonElement.classList.length)
+          .toBe(2, 'button should have exactly 2 focus classes');
+      expect(buttonElement.classList.contains('cdk-focused'))
+          .toBe(true, 'button should have cdk-focused class');
+      expect(buttonElement.classList.contains('cdk-touch-focused'))
+          .toBe(true, 'button should have cdk-touch-focused class');
+      expect(changeHandler).toHaveBeenCalledWith('touch');
+    }, 0);
+  }));
+
   it('focusVia program should simulate programmatic focus', async(() => {
     focusOriginMonitor.focusVia(buttonElement, buttonRenderer, 'program');
     fixture.detectChanges();
@@ -234,7 +270,7 @@ describe('cdkFocusClasses', () => {
 
   it('should detect focus via mouse', async(() => {
     // Simulate focus via mouse.
-    dispatchMousedownEvent(document);
+    dispatchMousedownEvent(buttonElement);
     buttonElement.focus();
     fixture.detectChanges();
 
@@ -251,6 +287,25 @@ describe('cdkFocusClasses', () => {
     }, 0);
   }));
 
+  it('should detect focus via touch', async(() => {
+    // Simulate focus via touch.
+    dispatchTouchstartEvent(buttonElement);
+    buttonElement.focus();
+    fixture.detectChanges();
+
+    setTimeout(() => {
+      fixture.detectChanges();
+
+      expect(buttonElement.classList.length)
+          .toBe(2, 'button should have exactly 2 focus classes');
+      expect(buttonElement.classList.contains('cdk-focused'))
+          .toBe(true, 'button should have cdk-focused class');
+      expect(buttonElement.classList.contains('cdk-touch-focused'))
+          .toBe(true, 'button should have cdk-touch-focused class');
+      expect(changeHandler).toHaveBeenCalledWith('touch');
+    }, TOUCH_BUFFER_MS);
+  }));
+
   it('should detect programmatic focus', async(() => {
     // Programmatically focus.
     buttonElement.focus();
@@ -312,6 +367,13 @@ function dispatchMousedownEvent(element: Node) {
   element.dispatchEvent(event);
 }
 
+/** Dispatches a mousedown event on the specified element. */
+function dispatchTouchstartEvent(element: Node) {
+  let event = document.createEvent('MouseEvent');
+  event.initMouseEvent(
+      'touchstart', true, true, window, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, false, false, false, false, 0, null);
+  element.dispatchEvent(event);
+}
 
 /** Dispatches a keydown event on the specified element. */
 function dispatchKeydownEvent(element: Node, keyCode: number) {
diff --git a/src/lib/core/style/focus-classes.ts b/src/lib/core/style/focus-classes.ts
index e8f0057f0ff7..9eefdf85dbc9 100644
--- a/src/lib/core/style/focus-classes.ts
+++ b/src/lib/core/style/focus-classes.ts
@@ -3,7 +3,12 @@ import {Observable} from 'rxjs/Observable';
 import {Subject} from 'rxjs/Subject';
 
 
-export type FocusOrigin = 'mouse' | 'keyboard' | 'program';
+// This is the value used by AngularJS Material. Through trial and error (on iPhone 6S) they found
+// that a value of around 650ms seems appropriate.
+export const TOUCH_BUFFER_MS = 650;
+
+
+export type FocusOrigin = 'touch' | 'mouse' | 'keyboard' | 'program';
 
 
 /** Monitors mouse and keyboard events to determine the cause of focus events. */
@@ -18,14 +23,40 @@ export class FocusOriginMonitor {
   /** Whether the window has just been focused. */
   private _windowFocused = false;
 
+  /** The target of the last touch event. */
+  private _lastTouchTarget: EventTarget;
+
+  /** The timeout id of the touch timeout, used to cancel timeout later. */
+  private _touchTimeout: number;
+
   constructor() {
-    // Listen to keydown and mousedown in the capture phase so we can detect them even if the user
-    // stops propagation.
-    // TODO(mmalerba): Figure out how to handle touchstart
-    document.addEventListener(
-        'keydown', () => this._setOriginForCurrentEventQueue('keyboard'), true);
-    document.addEventListener(
-        'mousedown', () => this._setOriginForCurrentEventQueue('mouse'), true);
+    // Note: we listen to events in the capture phase so we can detect them even if the user stops
+    // propagation.
+
+    // On keydown record the origin and clear any touch event that may be in progress.
+    document.addEventListener('keydown', () => {
+      this._lastTouchTarget = null;
+      this._setOriginForCurrentEventQueue('keyboard');
+    }, true);
+
+    // On mousedown record the origin only if there is not touch target, since a mousedown can
+    // happen as a result of a touch event.
+    document.addEventListener('mousedown', () => {
+      if (!this._lastTouchTarget) {
+        this._setOriginForCurrentEventQueue('mouse');
+      }
+    }, true);
+
+    // When the touchstart event fires the focus event is not yet in the event queue. This means we
+    // can't rely on the trick used above (setting timeout of 0ms). Instead we wait 650ms to see if
+    // a focus happens.
+    document.addEventListener('touchstart', (event: Event) => {
+      if (this._touchTimeout != null) {
+        clearTimeout(this._touchTimeout);
+      }
+      this._lastTouchTarget = event.target;
+      this._touchTimeout = setTimeout(() => this._lastTouchTarget = null, TOUCH_BUFFER_MS);
+    }, true);
 
     // Make a note of when the window regains focus, so we can restore the origin info for the
     // focused element.
@@ -38,7 +69,8 @@ export class FocusOriginMonitor {
   /** Register an element to receive focus classes. */
   registerElementForFocusClasses(element: Element, renderer: Renderer): Observable<FocusOrigin> {
     let subject = new Subject<FocusOrigin>();
-    renderer.listen(element, 'focus', () => this._onFocus(element, renderer, subject));
+    renderer.listen(element, 'focus',
+        (event: Event) => this._onFocus(event, element, renderer, subject));
     renderer.listen(element, 'blur', () => this._onBlur(element, renderer, subject));
     return subject.asObservable();
   }
@@ -55,27 +87,56 @@ export class FocusOriginMonitor {
     setTimeout(() => this._origin = null, 0);
   }
 
+  /** Checks whether the given focus event was caused by a touchstart event. */
+  private _wasCausedByTouch(event: Event): boolean {
+    // Note(mmalerba): This implementation is not quite perfect, there is a small edge case.
+    // Consider the following dom structure:
+    //
+    // <div #parent tabindex="0" cdkFocusClasses>
+    //   <div #child (click)="#parent.focus()"></div>
+    // </div>
+    //
+    // If the user touches the #child element and the #parent is programmatically focused as a
+    // result, this code will still consider it to have been caused by the touch event and will
+    // apply the cdk-touch-focused class rather than the cdk-program-focused class. This is a
+    // relatively small edge-case that can be worked around by using
+    // focusVia(parentEl, renderer,  'program') to focus the parent element.
+    //
+    // If we decide that we absolutely must handle this case correctly, we can do so by listening
+    // for the first focus event after the touchstart, and then the first blur event after that
+    // focus event. When that blur event fires we know that whatever follows is not a result of the
+    // touchstart.
+    let focusTarget = event.target;
+    return this._lastTouchTarget instanceof Node && focusTarget instanceof Node &&
+        (focusTarget == this._lastTouchTarget || focusTarget.contains(this._lastTouchTarget));
+  }
+
   /** Handles focus events on a registered element. */
-  private _onFocus(element: Element, renderer: Renderer, subject: Subject<FocusOrigin>) {
+  private _onFocus(event: Event, element: Element, renderer: Renderer,
+                   subject: Subject<FocusOrigin>) {
     // If we couldn't detect a cause for the focus event, it's due to one of two reasons:
     // 1) The window has just regained focus, in which case we want to restore the focused state of
     //    the element from before the window blurred.
-    // 2) The element was programmatically focused, in which case we should mark the origin as
+    // 2) It was caused by a touch event, in which case we mark the origin as 'touch'.
+    // 3) The element was programmatically focused, in which case we should mark the origin as
     //    'program'.
     if (!this._origin) {
       if (this._windowFocused && this._lastFocusOrigin) {
         this._origin = this._lastFocusOrigin;
+      } else if (this._wasCausedByTouch(event)) {
+        this._origin = 'touch';
       } else {
         this._origin = 'program';
       }
     }
 
     renderer.setElementClass(element, 'cdk-focused', true);
+    renderer.setElementClass(element, 'cdk-touch-focused', this._origin == 'touch');
     renderer.setElementClass(element, 'cdk-keyboard-focused', this._origin == 'keyboard');
     renderer.setElementClass(element, 'cdk-mouse-focused', this._origin == 'mouse');
     renderer.setElementClass(element, 'cdk-program-focused', this._origin == 'program');
-
     subject.next(this._origin);
+
     this._lastFocusOrigin = this._origin;
     this._origin = null;
   }
@@ -83,6 +144,7 @@ export class FocusOriginMonitor {
   /** Handles blur events on a registered element. */
   private _onBlur(element: Element, renderer: Renderer, subject: Subject<FocusOrigin>) {
     renderer.setElementClass(element, 'cdk-focused', false);
+    renderer.setElementClass(element, 'cdk-touch-focused', false);
     renderer.setElementClass(element, 'cdk-keyboard-focused', false);
     renderer.setElementClass(element, 'cdk-mouse-focused', false);
     renderer.setElementClass(element, 'cdk-program-focused', false);