All your channels, one platform: how Universal Channel redefines orchestration

Managing your marketing channels used to mean managing multiple tools in parallel, each with its own data, its own logic, its own reporting. The result: fragmented customer experiences, duplicated work, and no clear picture of what's actually working.

Universal Channel solves this. Announced at Batch Keynote #6, it lets marketing teams activate any communication channel directly from their Batch journeys, including tools and partners that aren't natively supported by the platform.

We sat down with Céline Aschenbrenner, Senior Product Manager at Batch and the person behind Universal Channel, to understand the problem it solves and what it changes in practice.

Why channel proliferation is breaking marketing workflows

Brands are communicating with their customers across more channels than ever. Push notifications, email, SMS those are standard. But depending on the industry and use case, teams are also activating WhatsApp, wallet notifications, voice messaging, social retargeting, local messaging apps like Line or KakaoTalk, and support ticketing.

The challenge isn't having access to these channels. It's that each one typically lives in its own tool, with its own data setup and its own segmentation logic. Testing a new channel in isolation gives you an incomplete picture: you see open rates and clicks, but you can't measure the actual impact on a customer journey.

That's the core problem Universal Channel addresses: letting teams run all their communications from a single place, using whatever channel they need, without rebuilding their data, targeting, or automations from scratch.

How Universal Channel works

Universal Channel connects third-party tools and partner platforms directly to Batch's Automation Builder. You can trigger any external channel at any step in a journey with the same segmentation, personalization, and event-based logic you already use for push, email, and SMS.

Four things make this different from a typical integration:

• No restrictions on channels: if a tool connects via webhook or API, it's eligible

• Native omnichannel journeys: external channels appear alongside native ones in the same automation workflow

• No technical setup required: configuration takes a few clicks, no redevelopment needed

• Hundreds of eligible partners: the ecosystem is already broad and continues to expand

Real use cases: beyond the obvious

The use cases span a wide range of industries and scenarios.

Wallet notifications are a natural fit for retail and loyalty programs: triggering a wallet message at the moment of purchase or when a reward is available keeps the experience seamless and contextual.

Voice messaging is used for high-stakes confirmations and reminders, appointment-based businesses, healthcare adjacent services, and financial products have all found value here.

One use case that's become increasingly common is integrating the call center into automated journeys. On churn or dissatisfaction paths, Batch can automatically create a ticket in a tool like Zendesk so a customer advisor calls back at exactly the right moment, not based on a manual trigger, but on real customer behavior.

On the paid media side, teams can add users to retargeting or reactivation audiences on Meta or Google Ads without leaving the Batch journey. No CSV exports, no manual syncs.

And WhatsApp probably the most requested integration, can now be orchestrated within a full omnichannel journey rather than running as a standalone channel with its own rules.

Universal Channel + Wax: the WhatsApp use case in practice

At Keynote #6, Batch invited Guillaume Escolier, co-founder and CEO of Wax, to demonstrate the integration live. Wax is a key Batch partner for WhatsApp: their integration enables personalized marketing campaigns on WhatsApp, event-triggered automations, and full coordination with email and SMS all orchestrated from Batch.

ManoMano uses Batch and Wax together for two main use cases: abandoned cart recovery and loyalty program engagement.

The results are concrete:

• 9% conversion rate on abandoned cart messages

• 14% engagement rate on loyalty program campaigns

• 9% click-through rate

• 3x more app downloads from WhatsApp versus SMS

These numbers illustrate what happens when WhatsApp is part of a coherent journey rather than treated as a standalone channel. The channel itself isn't the variable. Orchestration is.

What this changes for marketing teams

Three things shift when Universal Channel is part of your stack.

Speed to channel: when a new channel becomes relevant, you can activate it inside your existing Batch journeys, with targeting and personalization already in place. No need to rebuild logic elsewhere.

Unified management: your omnichannel strategy runs from one place. You're no longer limited to natively supported channels, and you're no longer toggling between tools to understand what's happening.

Consistent customer experience: whether a customer gets a push, an SMS, a WhatsApp message, or a wallet notification, it's part of the same journey, with the same personalization logic. The channel changes. The experience doesn't fragment.

Universal Channel is available as an option for all Batch clients. Reach out to your Customer Success team to get started.