Invoke dart code from native Android home screen widget

I added a native Android home screen widget to my Flutter application.

In my AppWidgetProvider implementation, I'd like to call dart code in my onUpdate() method using a platform channel.

Is this possible? If so, how can this be achieved?

My current Android (Java) code:

package com.westy92.checkiday;

import android.appwidget.AppWidgetManager;
import android.appwidget.AppWidgetProvider;
import android.content.Context;
import android.util.Log;

import io.flutter.plugin.common.MethodChannel;
import io.flutter.view.FlutterNativeView;

public class HomeScreenWidget extends AppWidgetProvider {

    private static final String TAG = "HomeScreenWidget";
    private static final String CHANNEL = "com.westy92.checkiday/widget";

    private static FlutterNativeView backgroundFlutterView = null;
    private static MethodChannel channel = null;

    @Override
    public void onEnabled(Context context) {
        Log.i(TAG, "onEnabled!");
        backgroundFlutterView = new FlutterNativeView(context, true);
        channel = new MethodChannel(backgroundFlutterView, CHANNEL);
    }

    @Override
    public void onUpdate(Context context, AppWidgetManager appWidgetManager, int[] appWidgetIds) {
        Log.i(TAG, "onUpdate!");
        if (channel != null) {
            Log.i(TAG, "channel not null, invoking dart method!");
            channel.invokeMethod("foo", "extraJunk");
            Log.i(TAG, "after invoke dart method!");
        }
    }
}

Dart code:

void main() {
  runApp(Checkiday());
}

class Checkiday extends StatefulWidget {
  @override
  _CheckidayState createState() => _CheckidayState();
}

class _CheckidayState extends State<Checkiday> {
  static const MethodChannel platform = MethodChannel('com.westy92.checkiday/widget');

  @override
  void initState() {
    super.initState();
    platform.setMethodCallHandler(nativeMethodCallHandler);
  }

  Future<dynamic> nativeMethodCallHandler(MethodCall methodCall) async {
    print('Native call!');
    switch (methodCall.method) {
      case 'foo':
        return 'some string';
      default:
      // todo - throw not implemented
    }
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    // ...
  }
}

When I add the widget to my home screen, I see:

I/HomeScreenWidget(10999): onEnabled!
I/HomeScreenWidget(10999): onUpdate!
I/HomeScreenWidget(10999): channel not null, invoking dart method!
I/HomeScreenWidget(10999): after invoke dart method!

However, my dart code does not seem to be receiving the invocation.

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