Apart from the speaker’s voice, hearing aid amplifies environmental sounds as well. As the human brain needs some time to adapt to the amplified sounds, it is recommended that the hearing aid user get used to listening in typical quiet environment first before using the hearing aid in more challenging and adverse listening environments (e.g. in groups and/or in noise). Modern digital hearing aid technologies also facilitate listening in noisy environment through automatic noise reduction / cancellation features or let the hearing aid user switch to specific listening programmes in the hearing aid to enhance communication in such environment.
助聽器除了放大說話者的聲音之外，也會放大周遭的環境聲音。人的腦袋當然需要也一些時間去適應放大了的聲音，因此助聽器使用者應先習慣在一般較為安靜的環境使用助聽器，才逐步在其他較難聆聽的環境中使用助聽器（如小組或嘈雜環境）。近年助聽器的數碼科技也持續革新，具備自動噪音抑制功能或讓助聽器使用者選擇專為在噪音環境使用而設的聆聽程式，進一步提升溝通效果。