The presence of God's grace in the holy sacrament of Penance is what gives it a "luxury/premium" quality regardless of the physical environment. An app, which does not confer God's grace, can never be "luxury/premium" for this reason and can not "disrupt" the sacrament.

Parent is making a joke, but surely God can be present through an app, if he so chooses?

From the perspective of the Catholic faith, God can do whatever He pleases provided it's logical and consistent with His past promises. While God could decide to grant the pardon and grace of the sacrament through an app, the Church expects the Holy Spirit would inform us of such a decision. It also seems highly unlikely since it would be antithetical to the theological premise of Penance, in which the humility required to confess your sins directly to another human is central.

A list of ridiculous startup ideas I saw one day had "automated processing of confessional secrets" on it. I guess it's no longer ridiculous.

>The CaaS (Confession as a Service) space is certainly heating up.

This reminds me of a song by Momus which is about a "Catholic app", a smartphone app made by the Catholic Church to listen to prayers and confessions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq7jg3OZc1g

There actually are a bunch of Catholic apps related to confession -- the most popular of which is http://www.littleiapps.com/confession/ -- but none is meant to take the place of the sacrament itself. They just walk you through the process of making a good confession.