Before I spent 30+ minutes putting together a test app, I am just wondering if it is even possible to insert exoplayer in a homescreen widget so that it will play a video (with sound) while the homescreen is showing on the device?
Not possible. In previous versions of Android it was possible to start a transparent activity when the user interacts with the widget. This is now more complicated (requires the draw over apps permission).
Are you saying that I can add the exoplayer view to a widget, but that without the draw-over-app permission (and a transparent panel) I would not be able to interact with the widget (ie play/stop video)?